Oil and coal-backed groups far outpace Obama, allies on energy ads

Apr 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Neela Banerjee Los Angeles Times

Energy has become a touchstone issue in the presidential race, and groups backed by oil and coal dollars have spent far more money on ads bashing the president's record than the Obama campaign and its allies have spent defending it, according to a new analysis by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning Washington think tank.

Relying on the groups' own announcements and data provided to press clients by Kantar Media/Campaign Media Analysis Group, the Center's Climate Progress blog calculated that in the first three and a half months of 2012, "groups including Americans for Prosperity, American Petroleum Institute, Crossroads GPS, and American Energy Alliance have spent $16,750,000 on energy attack ads."

In comparison, the Obama campaign and an affiliated "super PAC," Priorities USA, "have spent at least $1.67 million defending the president's energy record," the analysis reported.

The numbers could already be out-of-date, and both sides have likely spent more since those announcements were made, said Elizabeth Wilner, vice president of Kantar Media/Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads by issue.

With the economic recovery weak, gas prices high and Mideast politics threatening to send them even higher, Obama's opponents are battering him on energy policies they maintain have contributed to pain at the pump. The Obama campaign has rolled out ads in defense. As a result, five of seven general election commercials airing in key swing states like OH, VA and FL are about energy, according to Kantar Media/Campaign Media Analysis Group.

"If you see an issue in advertising, it means that the campaigns are looking at something, like polling or focus groups, that tells them that this matters to people they are trying to reach," Wilner said. "Or they are trying to make it matter."

According to Climate Progress, the biggest Obama critics included:

*The American Petroleum Institute, which spent at least $4.3 million since January, based on Kantar Media/CMAG data in The Washington Post.

*Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS has spent a total $2.85 million since January, including $500,000 on ads focusing on the Obama administration's loan to the failed solar panel maker, Solyndra, another $650,000 on ads about gas prices, and $1.7 million promoting expanded domestic drilling.

*The American Energy Alliance, which has bought $3.6 million of gas price ads for what the group calls the "largest effort of its kind in AEA's history." AEA is partially funded by libertarian petrochemical billionaires Charles and David Koch.

*Americans For Prosperity, which also spent $6 million on a Solyndra ad.

Climate Progress said that several other deep-pocketed energy industry groups are lined up to fund super PACs critical of the administration. They include American Crossroads, whose biggest donors come from energy and which has $200 million on hand, and the Koch brothers, who have pledged to spend $100 million to defeat Obama.

neela.banerjee@latimes.com