Conservation group targeting nine MAGA lawmakers with digital ad campaign

The Virginia League of Conservation Voters is targeting nine MAGA incumbents for their votes against legislative efforts to cut energy costs and secure an affordable, clean energy transition.

The LCV launched a $120,000 digital ad campaign this week, with the design being, getting 4 million digital impressions and 2.5 million video views on two spots – “Raking in the Cash” and “Sweat”) – that will be running on Meta, Connected TV, Snapchat and YouTube for three weeks.

The campaign is being targeted at Ian Lovejoy (HD 22), Geary Higgins (HD 30), Chris Obenshain (HD 41), David Owen (HD 57), Amanda Batten (HD 71), Mark Earley (HD 73), Carrie Coyner (HD 75), Kimberly Taylor (HD 82) and AC Cordoza (HD 86).

This group of lawmakers voted against the following bills this year that proponents are advocating for to cut energy costs and secure a clean, affordable energy future:

• House Bill 2266: Cuts excessive interconnection costs – the charges that big utilities levy on third-party energy developers to bring clean energy onto the grid – to make small clean energy projects more affordable and bring projects online faster.
• House Bill 2346: Creates a virtual power plant (“VPP”) pilot program in Dominion Energy territory that coordinates distributed energy resources (“DERs”) to help meet power demand when it’s at its highest instead of building new, costly, and polluting generation infrastructure.
• House Bill 1935: Creates a task force to identify ways to cut energy costs and make home weatherization programs more effective.

Michael Town, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, had this to say about the campaign:

“In peak summer, as energy consumption – and electric bills – hit their highest point of the year, it’s important for Virginians to know that if Republicans had their way at the General Assembly those energy costs would be much, much higher. At a time when clean energy is our cheapest, most deployable resource, Republicans want to double down on harmful, dirty, and expensive coal and methane to keep the lights on – efforts that would make our air dirtier while boosting corporate polluters’ bottom lines.

“The ‘Megabill’ that just passed out of Congress is estimated to drive up energy costs in Virginia by more than $7 billion – making it that much more important that we do everything we can here in the Commonwealth to cut bills and secure a better path forward, one that meets energy demand with cheap wind and solar and puts Virginians – not corporations – first.”