Enviro’s New Playbook, No Show Boat, and #Lobbyists #Resist

Here’s What You Need To Know

As we wrap up 2017, it is time to reflect on the year that was. Over the past year, it has become clear that 2017 became the year of #Resistance as we enter a new Age of Activism that is rocking not just Washington, but many industries, including the energy industry.

As Delve CEO Jeff Berkowitz noted in a Morning Consult column earlier this week, environmental groups are no longer letting the staid bureaucratic process of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) play out slowly. The Sierra Club’s efforts last month to halt construction of the Nexus pipeline by suing FERC before it completed its normal approval process presents a major shift in the way environmental groups engage in the energy infrastructure space. This is just one example of the new, more aggressive playbook being used by energy activists in the Trump era:

  • Turning Up The Heat On FERC: Lacking an administration sympathetic to their cause like the previous one, environmental groups have chosen to do an end-run around the agency that regulates pipeline and other energy infrastructure projects. In filing the lawsuit to stop the project before the Commission’s rehearing process is completed, Sierra Club is showing that no regulatory process that has been an accepted sequence for years is safe from activists. The result is a government oversight process that becomes even more politicized as both sides become increasingly confrontational.
  • Increasing The Risk Of Confrontation: Environmental groups and their supporters are more impatient for victories and more aggressive in their tactics, posing political, financial, and reputational risks for energy companies and project financiers. The push for quicker legal action or street protests also pressures pipeline companies to get shovels in the ground on their projects sooner, increasing the likelihood for real confrontations like those witnessed during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. There is a reason why PBS NewsHour named the anti-DAPL protests the biggest story of 2016 after the presidential election: What we saw at Dakota Access is a harbinger of what is to come.
  • Welcome To The Age Of Activism: This is part of the broader trend highlighted in Delve’s white paper on the new Age of Activism. The speed, scale, and professionalization of today’s activist movements present challenges for unsuspecting and unprepared companies – meaning it is more important than ever to have a competitive information advantage to anticipate and protect against these risks.

Read the entire op-ed here.

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News You Can Use

NO SHOW BOAT

Why did Viking River Cruises terminate its plan to offer vacations along the Mississippi River? The European-based company decided that the economics of operating in the U.S. no longer made sense due to an obscure federal law signed by then-President Grover Cleveland in 1886, the Passenger Vessel Services Act (PVSA). This law, which requires that ships carrying passengers between U.S. ports be American-built and owned and operated by Americans, was conceived as a protectionist measure to shelter domestic shipbuilding.

More than 130 years later, however, the new tourism jobs and dollars promised by this venture and greeted with excitement by towns and cities along the Mississippi River, are being denied by the PVSA. The result is an interesting irony: today’s “America First” President may well do better to eliminate an “America First” law enacted by a prior one if he wants to create jobs and spur economic growth here at home.

FACTS INSTEAD OF FAKES

Forged documents alleging sexual misconduct and phony policy stances by lawmakers have ushered in a new climate of uncertainty as public allegations, buttressed by fake documents, are used as a political weapon. The name and signature of a former staffer for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was forged to allege sexual misconduct by the Senator, and a Republican candidate running against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) tweeted a fake document that alleged the Congresswoman wanted to resettle “up to 41k” refugees in her California Congressional District. Here at Delve, we know that effective opposition research creates the foundation for any successful, fact-based public messaging campaign, and in our experience, political hits that work start with the facts instead of the fakes.

“UNAFFORDABLE” OR “UNCOMPETITIVE”?

Thirty-seven percent of uninsured Americans say the reason they are without health insurance is because they can’t afford it, yet one economist asserts that “unaffordable” health insurance is a myth – or at least is caused by government intervention that blocks the free market. Citing technological advances in affordable, mass-produced luxuries like personal computers, cell phones, and cars, John Tamny makes the case that “market-driven, entrepreneurial endeavor has a brilliant track record of turning scarcity into abundance.”

Given that functioning markets have allowed Americans at all income levels to afford more items than ever before, Tamny advises the same to drive down costs when it comes to health insurance policy: “Instead of replacing Obamacare with [Republicans’] own central plan, think about simply doing nothing other than ensuring there are no national governmental barriers limiting entrepreneurial entrance into the health insurance space.”

#LOBBYISTS #RESIST

When the final tax reform package was taking shape on Capitol Hill, the influence industry was using a variety of tactics to ensure their client’s interests and concerns were addressed in the final conference package. In a nod to the public nature of today’s policy debates, a lobbyist for the travel industry sought to kill an amendment supported by Delta Air Lines by sending emails to Republican tax writers with links the lobbyist claimed showed the airline’s consultants criticizing Trump, entitling one email, “Delta Lobbyists: RESIST.”

The implication was that Republicans shouldn’t reward the interests of those #resisting the President, but the people who were supposedly the airline’s consultants were actually those of an airline interest group. Now that traditional shoe-leather lobbying – and the smoke-filled rooms of the past – are no longer enough to achieve one’s public affairs objectives, companies need to make sure they have their research done right before deploying it against their opponents on Capitol Hill.

DYING TO STOP REGULATIONS

A recent Wall Street Journal investigation uncovered something the research bullpen at Delve has known for some time: millions of comments submitted to executive agencies on pending regulatory issues are fake, or even dead. Although it’s a felony to “knowingly make false, fictitious or fraudulent statements to a U.S. agency,” it’s not considered fraud if mass emailing comments have the authorization of the individuals named.

This law has not stopped campaigns and activists who promote or oppose a regulation from using the name and address of individuals without their knowing, or even submitting comments from the deceased. Officials on both sides of the political spectrum are planning to look into this practice to find ways to improve the integrity of the public comment process, however in the meantime, it is more important than ever to have a deeper understanding of what, who, and why is behind the oppositional forces on an issue.