This week witnessed a setback to Keystone XL pipeline legislation in the Senate, as Democrats prevented the bill from advancing with limited debate. But oily interest groups are taking the fight to a new venue to influence DC policymakers: the Super Bowl.
On Wednesday, the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington, DC-based political watchdog group, picked up on a peculiar six-figure Super Bowl ad buy from the nation’s preeminent fossil fuel lobby, the American Petroleum Institute (API). The ad, which will only run only on Washington, DC’s local NBC affiliate, compliments a recent API adverting blitz in the nation’s capital promoting construction of Keystone XL.
But the most recent purchase is on a much different scale.
“That six-figure buy includes the single biggest spot in a recent advertising campaign by the trade group,” the Sunlight Foundation said.
Although legislation to force approval of pipeline construction failed to muster 60 votes to break a filibuster on Monday, there are a host of other issues that API may aim to focus on in their ad, which will reportedly air during half-time.
In the last few weeks, the Obama Administration has targeted fracking for more regulations to reduce methane pollution. And it issued executive actions over the weekend aimed at protecting more than 12 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, from further oil exploration and drilling, although, the White House also opened up new areas in the Atlantic and Arctic for oil extraction on Tuesday.
By focusing strictly on DC with the ad buy, API isn’t targeting voters, it’s targeting policymakers. Although many lawmakers return home to their districts on the weekend, their staff and the network of lobbyists that call “This Town” home are sure to be watching the big game on the local airwaves Sunday night.
If the API decided to reload for another Keystone XL salvo, the Super Bowl ad might be aimed at one particular DC resident who will no doubt be watching the game: President Obama.
Although he’s opposed legislation to force construction of the pipeline, calling it a breach of process with a final study on the project still ongoing at the State Department, he has yet to rule out approving Keystone XL on his own once the State Department finishes its analysis.
