Climate change policy and politics has long faced a Catch 22:
- Politicians don’t speak about the climate crisis and about climate policy since polling (seems to) shows that people don’t really place a high priority on climate action.
- Voters don’t think of climate policy action as critical and urgent because leaders (politicians) aren’t speaking about this as an urgent issue.
One of the (many) reasons why “Energy Smart Jeff” Merkley gained my enthusiastic support and fundraising when running (successfully) for Senate in 2008 was his recognition of that Catch 22 and determination to confront it head on. In one conversation (paraphrasing, don’t have the exact words in front of me), Jeff explained that
Climate change is a critical issue and we must act. My political consultants are telling me not to talk about climate and clean energy, that these aren’t winning issues. If we don’t talk about these issues, people won’t know they’re important and we won’t have support for action when we have the power to act. That is why I speak about climate and clean energy in every meeting and every single day of this campaign.
With Merkley’s words and approach in mind, let’s take a brief look at what might be the most important 2023 election in the United States: the Virginia governor’s race. Virginia’s next governor, Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger, has some good words on energy and climate on her home page and some good clean energy and climate approaches in her Energy Affordability Plan. As an example, from the campaign’s website:
“Abigail knows that Virginia has the opportunity to be a national leader in clean energy, including by bringing high-paying clean energy jobs to the Commonwealth through investments in offshore wind, rooftop solar, and other renewable energy sources.
“In Congress, Abigail supported commonsense incentives for increased deployment of clean energy sources such as wind and solar, as well as electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.
“As the next Governor of Virginia, Abigail is committed to making sure Virginia can meet its energy needs while growing its economy and keeping costs low for Virginians.”
However, those policy geek details don’t seem to seep into Spanberger’s public engagement.
Let’s take two social media sites as surrogates to understand this. Spanberger’s BlueSky and neo-fascist xTwitter accounts.
- In 614 BlueSky postings, there have been 0 uses of the words climate, solar, wind, renewable
- So far in 2025, the same result at xTwitter.
- Note that solar does show up in older posts on that account, such as her 2019 announcement that she’d installed solar on her house roof.
- As does climate, such as this 20 November 2018 sharing of a report on climate change: “A report released today details how climate change and the extreme environmental events it causes are threatening our health, economy, infrastructure, & security. Congress must acknowledge this threat, work to fight the impact, and address the causes.”
- As does renewable, specifically in a 2018 campaign fundraising tweet: “Only 2 hours left to meet the June fundraising deadline! Investing in renewable energy means we can safeguard our natural resources while creating good-paying jobs here in Central Virginia. Help us make it happen by donating $7 to #Flipthe7th“
Let’s be clear, the 100s (no, 1,000s) of social media posts do not necessarily reflect all of Abigail Spanberger’s priorities nor her policy agenda nor are they likely (mainly) even posted by her (as opposed to a social media team). They do, however, provide a reasonable surrogate for how she and her campaign are thinking what matters politically and of how they are engaging with Virginia’s electorate.
It isn’t as if Spanberger isn’t aware of climate issues nor that she has been unwilling to talk about them in past campaigns. In 2019, for example, she emphasized that climate change is “one of the greatest and most imminent threats to our economy, our national security, and our way of life”. Let’s be clear, compounded by Trump’s climate science denialism and fossil foolish pollution promotion policies, that statement is even truer today.
A simple message to Abigail Spanberger: For Virginia’s and Virginians’ prosperity and security now and into the future, BE LIKE JEFF when it comes to speaking forthrightly about climate and clean energy issues.