Twitter: A Guide to the Climate Bill Discussion

How to find climate bill talk

"Hash tags" let people indicate the topic of tweets so others can easily find them.

People who support climate action generally use these hash tags:

• #climate: General climate talk
• #climatebill: Specific disscussion about the legislation
  
• #ACES: More wonky talk. Often used by environmental groups

Opponents of action often use these hash tags. If your blood pressure can handle the misguided claims, they are a great way to see and respond to the arguments the other side is using.

• #capandtax: The main tag used by the bill's opponents.
  
• #afp: Stands for Americans for Prosperity, the group lobbying hard against both health care reform and the climate bill
• #tcot: Used by the most extreme opponents
  

Speak up: Tweets, facts and links to use

Use both a hash tag and an @-reply  to make sure the person you're responding to sees your tweet!

They say:

"ACES will increase the cost of everything"

You can say:

• Avg U.S. household will pay just pennies a day… a great bargain for stopping the climate crisis: http://bit.ly/10W0WO
  [Tweet this!]
• False claims that ACES will cost a lot are based on a stat that opponents keep misusing: http://bit.ly/1WtKou
  [Tweet this!]
• Neutral govt analysts – not oil flunkies - found ACES will cost households just a dime a day. http://bit.ly/YDBfR
  [Tweet this!]
• ACES will cost a dime a day per person. No action means unimaginable cost. http://bit.ly/102DEe
  [Tweet this!]

They say:

"Cap and trade will cost jobs or move them overseas"

You can say:

• US industry will be fine under a carbon cap. Support from labor union + energy cos: http://bit.ly/2UH8Pu and http://bit.ly/6LErn
  [Tweet this!]
• 1000s of U.S. firms are set to grow under a carbon cap – see maps by state: http://bit.ly/11DzkN
  [Tweet this!]
• See @USRepMikeDoyle: Pittsburgh and other cities will prosper by leading in energy tech. http://bit.ly/EaR9o
  [Tweet this!]
• State-by-state stats -- job growth from clean energy, which will increase w/ cap on carbon pollution: http://bit.ly/wplcJ
  [Tweet this!]
• Duke Univ. report shows jobs created by clean energy tech – installation, making parts, etc.: http://bit.ly/emPwg
  [Tweet this!]
• China investing hugely in clean energy. W/ cap, we can lead. W/out, China takes the prize. http://bit.ly/ZUGu4
  [Tweet this!]

They say:

"ACES will do nothing to solve the climate crisis."

You can say:

• ACES will cut carbon pollution 83% by 2050, in line w/ what science says US needs to cut: http://bit.ly/2LB9c
  [Tweet this!]
• ACES means the US is putting our house in order. Then we can lead China + others to cuts. http://bit.ly/pNJhJ
  [Tweet this!]
• Why it's about the cap: @FredKrupp "I don't care whether it happens from reduced driving. I care that the carbon goes down."
  [Tweet this!]
• @FredKrupp "The worst thing we can do 4 our economy and our environment is to do nothing at all, the 2nd worst thing we can do is to delay" [ Tweet this!]

They say:

"Cap and trade is a tax."

You can say:

• Carbon cap is NOT a tax. It's a limit on pollution. http://bit.ly/8WjeE 
  [Tweet this!]
• Carbon cap is NOT a tax. Govt sets limit on pollution, then markets set price. http://bit.ly/a6ADa [Tweet this!]
• Carbon cap is NOT a tax. When a biz can cut pollution cheaply, it pays less or makes $. http://bit.ly/a6ADa [Tweet this!]
• Carbon cap is not a tax. System already gets lots of benefits w/ low cost in Clean Air Act, per EPA: http://bit.ly/ExptG [Tweet this!]
• @FredKrupp "if a carbon tax proposal were to be taken seriously, the number of exemptions would be huge; consider our 17k pg IRS code."
  [Tweet this!]

Posted: 14-Aug-2009; Updated: 10-Aug-2009