12 Ads To Push for Bipartisan Action to Price Carbon Emissions

“Exxon’s CEO Says Fossil Fuels are Raising Temperatures and Sea Levels. Why Won’t The Wall Street Journal?” Asks First Ad

An unprecedented series of 12 advertisements will be published in The Wall Street Journal starting today, bringing accurate, mainstream climate science to readers of the Journal opinion pages.

The twice-a-week series on the Journal’s op-ed page is sponsored by the Partnership for Responsible Growth, based in Washington, D.C., which is building bipartisan and business support for a revenue-neutral carbon fee as a pro-growth, free-market solution to climate change. The headline of the first ad in the series asks: “Exxon’s CEO Says Fossil Fuels Are Raising Temperatures and Sea Levels. Why Won’t the Wall Street Journal?”

The twelve ads will appear biweekly between June 14th and July 21st, ending just before the Republican Convention. They cover topics including the basic physics of how CO2 from fossil fuels traps heat on earth, the stubbornly long life of carbon in the atmosphere, military leaders on climate change as a “threat multiplier,” the carbon bubble risk to investors, how carbon pricing can stimulate economic growth, the risk of sea-level rise to the world’s major cities, the threat to human health, the economics of renewable and other clean energy solutions, and other topics.

“Climate change threatens Americans’ liberty, prosperity, and national security,” explained George Frampton, who co-founded the Partnership along with Walt Minnick and William Eacho. “We are buying the ad series to let Journal readers know we can address climate change in ways that increase American competitiveness, create jobs and reduce regulation.”

The Partnership for Sustainable Growth has assembled a prominent bipartisan Advisory Council who were consulted on the series’ content and science. They include former Republican Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC); William Nitze, former General Counsel for Mobil Oil Japan and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under George W. Bush; Rear Admiral David Titley, USN (ret.); Jerry Taylor, head of the libertarian Niskanen Center and a former VP and Director of Natural Resource Studies at the CATO Institute; Bob Litterman, prominent economist and former Partner and Chief Risk Officer at Goldman Sachs; Theodore Roosevelt IV, noted conservationist and Managing Director, Barclays Capital; and others. The full list will appear on the website for the ad series www.pricecarbon.org.

Each ad will also be footnoted with citations on the web site. Additionally, a detailed study of The Wall Street Journal editorial and opinion pages on the climate issue will also be posted on the website www.pricecarbon.org. The paper’s editorial page is well known for climate skepticism.

“The Wall Street Journal is the nation’s largest and most influential newspaper,” observed Partnership co-founder Walt Minnick. “What business and Republican leaders are unlikely to have read on its opinion pages is neither the latest science, nor that there is a bipartisan, business-friendly way to combat climate change. If The Journal won’t cover it, we will.”

The series was written and designed by Fenton, the social change agency, with award-winning copywriter Josh Gold. The Partnership will also buy TV ads featuring prominent Republicans on the need to address climate change.  These will appear on FOX News during the Republican Convention.

For further information contact Emma Stieglitz at Climate Nexus or Julia Peek at Fenton.