Sightline: 3 Climate Messages That Win

3 Climate Messages That Win

A message triangle to engage and win on climate change and clean energy.

Anna Fahey  May 6, 2015      Sightline Daily

 

This post is part of the research project: Flashcards

 

Poll after poll tells us that majorities of Americans support climate and energy solutions. But neither the talking heads on TV nor our elected officials have kept pace with public opinion—or with scientific urgency.

Why? One major factor is that the fossil fuel industry is actively stalling our progress, spending millions to influence elections, lobby decision-makers, and hammer Americans with messages designed to mislead, cast doubt, distract, and polarize.

Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions (along with Sightline and a team of messaging experts) has retested and updated the powerful climate change narrative first developed in 2012 that informed high-profile climate communications from the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency to 350.org and state and local leaders across the US.

It’s a clear, compelling narrative that cuts through these coal and oil industry tactics and frames global warming and energy solutions on our terms, not theirs. (Climate blogger Joe Romm hailed it a “must-read” for climate communicators.)

With a national survey, we identified three top-performing messages—persuasive among progressive voters and key swing and Independent segments of the electorate. Together they form a compelling message “triangle” anchored in shared values—responsibility, accountability, and empowerment. The narrative strikes an important balance between:

• The Threat: Pointing to strange and severe weather and our responsibility to protect our kids makes an emotional connection and grounds the issue in personal experience, underscoring the urgency of the climate challenge;
• The Villain: Holding oil and coal companies accountable for rigging the system against clean energy counters apathy and guilt by explaining why progress has stalled and showing that overcoming the roadblocks the fossil fuel industry has created is a way forward; and
• The Solutions: Demonstrating the benefits of shifting off dirty fuels to clean energy, especially in our neighborhoods, cities, and states helps transcend partisanship and shows that local, practical solutions are available, affordable, effective—and empowering.

These three messages are most powerful together, supported by key facts and local examples. Here is your quick reference for effective words to use:

Click here for the full messaging guide (pdf), including methodology, tested supporting facts, tips and talking points, and strategies for responding to common opposition attacks. Let us know if you’re interested in print copies of the guide and pocket guide or if you’d like to learn more about coaching and training opportunities.

Sightline Flashcards are messaging memos designed as short, scannable tools for sharing effective communications strategies. Our strategic communications team digests piles of public opinion research, transcripts from speeches, expert advice, and academic studies—from cognitive linguistics and neuroscience to political science, sociology, and psychology—distilling best practices in messaging. Flashcards often focus on values-based communication: strategies for talking about important policies or issue solutions in terms of shared values.

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New Regulations Inspire Little Confidence, Disasters Expected to Continue

 

CSX trains burns after derailment in WVA.

New Oil Train Rules Get Mixed Reactions In Northwest

“We'll continue to see derailments and spills even with these new rules in place"

By Tony Schick    Jefferson Public Radio  5/01/15

Oil trains are getting stronger tank cars, better brakes, slower speed limits and possibly new routes. Many in the Northwest say that’s still not enough.

Federal transportation regulators in the U.S. and Canada released a sweeping set of final rules Friday with more stringent requirements for railroads hauling flammable liquids, including crude oil and ethanol. The rules come one day after Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and four of their Democratic colleagues introduced a wide-ranging bill intended to bolster oil train safety, including a fee on oil shipments made in old, puncture-prone tank cars.

“It’s a meaningful step but it doesn’t do enough,” Wyden said Friday of the federal rule. “It doesn’t move quickly enough to secure Oregon communities from the risk of flammable oil trains.”...

...Environmentalists, rail workers and safety experts called the rule a positive step, but each pointed out what they think are significant safety gaps.

Jared Margolis, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, said he thinks the speed limits are too high and the phase-out of old tank cars too dragged out.

The Center for Biological Diversity has previously sued to prevent oil trains in older tank cars from moving through parts of the Northwest, like the Columbia River Gorge.
 
“We'll continue to see derailments and spills even with these new rules in place,” Margolis said.....   more here

Fee Proposed on Rail Cars That Haul Oil, Other Flammables 

 

05/01/2015     Matthew Brown, AP

 

U.S. senators from six states on Thursday proposed that the government charge companies a special fee to ship oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids in older railroad tank cars that have been involved in fiery explosions.

The fee would start at $175 and increase to $1,400 per car by 2018. It would raise an estimated $600 million to train first responders, clean up spills and relocate rail tracks around populated areas.

The proposal would be paired with tax breaks for upgrades to newer tank cars, so they can better withstand derailments. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon told The Associated Press the intent is to offer "market-based" incentives for companies to improve safety.....    more here

10 Recent Oil Train Crashes in the US and Canada

 

Benicia Independent (from The Associated Press)   May 1, 2015     h/t Roger Straw

See also a listing on SafeBenicia.org, somewhat out of date but with more detail and photos.  

Sweeping regulations to boost the safety of trains transporting crude oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids were announced Friday by U.S. and Canadian officials. The long-awaited regulations are a response to a series of oil train accidents in both countries over the last few years that have resulted in spectacular fires that burned for days.

Here are some of those accidents:    here