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Global warming’s new marketing angle

Republican pollster Frank Luntz has advised Environmental Defense Fund president Fred Krupp to frame the global warming pitch to the public in a way that highlights job creation and national security. Sarah Gardner reports.

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Steve Chiotakis: Environmental groups haven’t stopped hoping to get a climate change bill through. One of them is even collaborating with the guy who used to be a political foe. From the Marketplace Sustainability Desk, Sarah Gardner reports.


Sarah Gardner: Environmental Defense Fund president Fred Krupp still believes Congress will pass a bill to curb greenhouse gas emissions. He says Americans support it and he points to several new polls as evidence.

One, by the Benenson Strategy Group, shows 58 percent of Americans favor a cap on emissions. The other, conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, suggests that Americans support climate regulation when it’s couched in terms of national security and jobs, as well as cleaner air. Fred Krupp:

Fred Krupp: Americans want their leaders to act on climate change, but not necessarily for the reasons that environmental groups think that action is wanted.

Krupp says he never thought he’d be touting a poll by Frank Luntz. Luntz once famously advised George Bush to question the science on global warming as a strategy to fight climate legislation. This week, Luntz advised Krupp that Americans don’t care as much about global warming as they do ending America’s dependence on foreign oil.

Green groups have already taken that message to heart. Clean Energy Works, a new coalition aimed at passing a climate bill, uses the slogan “More jobs, less pollution, greater security.”

I’m Sarah Gardner for Marketplace.

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