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Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

"Clean Coal" PR Firm Details its Tactics for Elevating The Visibility of Coal During 2008 Presidential Campaign

January 18, 2009 By Rod Adams

A friend of mine just sent me a link to a desmogblog.com post describing a proud friends and family newsletter from a Virginia based public relations firm called Hawthorn Group. The newsletter provided numerous details about how Hawthorn Group used a focused set of traditional public relations tactics to give the impression that there is a huge, grassroots level of support for coal.

The newsletter even provided the metric that the PR group used to measure the success of the campaign – they gave themselves credit for shifting the response to the following poll question:

“Do you support/oppose the use of coal to generate electricity?”

In September 2007, before the group put its plan into effect for the 2008 presidential campaign, the response was 46% supporting with 50% opposed. By the end of the 2008 presidential campaign, after most candidates had genuflected to King Coal – partially because they were surrounded by “Clean Coal” swag wearing supporters at campaign fundraising events – the poll numbers had shifted dramatically to 72% people supporting with just 22% opposed.

Here is a link to the Hawthorn Group newsletter detailing their “clean coal” branding efforts, just in case you need someone to run a campaign to convince people that the earth is flat, or that it is okay to drink water collected from shower drains.

(Note: the friend who sent the link suggested that I consider it to be a smoking gun, but unfortunately the group did not mention anything in their tactics letter about using their efforts to talk badly about nuclear power. I would not be surprised if they had but, so far, I cannot prove it.)

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About Rod Adams

Rod Adams is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience, now serving as a Managing Partner at Nucleation Capital, an emerging climate-focused fund. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial discussion and analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology and policies for several decades. He is the founder of Atomic Insights and host and producer of The Atomic Show Podcast.

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