Who Pays Heitkamp, Ryan, Landrieu To Pimp NG To Democrats? The People Who Brought You Keystone XL

[hatrack]

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The group, dubbed Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, comes as Democratic leaders across the country restrict gas use to fight climate change. The bans threaten customer losses for gas utilities, which dominate the liberal strongholds in cities and on coasts. To resist these efforts, the nonprofit group has enlisted prominent Democratic politicians and pollsters to help enhance gas’s reputation among liberal voters. “The gas utilities are acutely aware that their constituency is blue voters,” said Charlie Spatz, a research manager at the Energy and Policy Institute, which advocates for renewable energy. “The gas industry is not, at the end of the day, worried about right-wing voters. They have them.”

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Natural Allies is backed by TC Energy, the Canadian pipeline giant behind the controversial Keystone XL project, and Southern Company, one of the biggest U.S. utilities. Launched shortly before the 2020 election, the group is led by Susan Waller, a former executive at the pipeline firm Enbridge. Last spring, Waller enlisted Impact Research — a leading Democratic polling firm used by Joe Biden’s presidential campaign — to survey Americans’ sentiments about natural gas. According to emails obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute, Waller told the organizers of a conference for state utility commissioners that the pollsters would share the results with the White House.

More recently, Natural Allies has run ads featuring Landrieu and former senator Heidi Heitkamp, a moderate Democrat from North Dakota. Gas is “essential to accelerating our clean energy future,” Heitkamp said in an ad that was seen more than a million times on Facebook and Instagram.

The group got another influential messenger this month, when former congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said he would join its leadership council after losing a tough Senate race to Republican J.D. Vance. Ryan will replace Heitkamp, who is leaving to lead the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/02/gas-industry-hires-democrats-liberal-voters/

[2naSalit]

1. No surprise there.