This August, the Administration issued the strongest fuel-economy rules in U.S. history for heavy- and medium-duty diesel trucks, with widespread support from industry. Cater Communications worked with the Heavy Duty Leadership Group, whose members include major industry leaders and fleet owners Cummins, Eaton, FedEx, PepsiCo, Wabash and Waste Management, to weigh in on the standards leading up to and on the day of release. Coverage included the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters, USA Today, Washington Examiner, Scientific American, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Trucks.com, Fleet Owner and more.
Also weighing in were 11 natural food companies and retailers, who wrote to EPA and NHTSA asking for strong heavy-duty fuel-economy standards. General Mills, Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s and nine other signers are all members of Ceres’ BICEP, which asked Cater Communications to amplify the letter with a media alert and a DC-targeted ad campaign. The effort garnered attention in Politico, Washington Examiner, Trucks.com and other outlets, and ads designed and placed by Cater ran full-page in Politico and in banners on The Hill’s website.
Finally, CALSTART released an in-depth report on America’s heavy-duty supplier network ahead of the standards’ release. It found that the U.S. has a rich, nationwide network of high-efficiency suppliers producing and developing products that can meet strong fuel-economy and emissions targets. Coverage appeared in the Washington Examiner, E&E News, Trucks.com, FleetOwner, TruckingInfo.com, NGT News and Green Car Congress.
At key moments in the public debate, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) weighed in with strong consumer support for both light- and heavy-duty miles-per-gallon standards. Coverage included New York Times, Washington Post, CBS News, Morning Consult, Detroit News, TruckNews.com, Consumer Affairs, AutoBlog.com and Environmental Leader.
A CFA report, also released by Cater, analyzed all 1,094 current model year vehicles offered by major automakers and found that Americans shopping for new cars and trucks have more fuel-efficient options than ever, thanks to national fuel economy standards. CFA found that these vehicles are meeting and beating rising miles-per-gallon standards – and, as result, consumers are saving money. NBC TV produced a package broadcast on more than 70 stations across the country. Forbes, Consumer Affairs, E&E News (syndicated to Scientific American), POLITICO, Detroit Bureau, Edmunds.com and many other outlets also wrote about the report. Additionally, it caught the attention of the Auto Alliance, auto manufacturers’ main trade group in Washington, which tweeted about it.
“After all, the auto industry is expected to break sales records this year, for the second year in a row. American families are being offered a wide-range of vehicles with fabulous features and performance at ever-increasing levels of fuel efficiency at affordable prices.”
So said Chuck Frank, a Chicago auto dealer for almost three decades, in an op-ed in the Detroit News, with the help of Cater Communications.
He continued: “Put simply: the standards are working… Despite all of the sales records being broken, we are now hearing an old, familiar complaint from automakers and dealers. ‘We can’t meet the standard,’ they say. ‘It’s too expensive, and we can’t develop the technology.’ Baloney.”’
Former Indianapolis mayor and veteran, Greg Ballard, and General Richard Zilmer (ret). urged the country to continue reducing our dependence on oil with strong fuel economy standards, because over-dependence on oil puts us at risk.
“Over-reliance on oil ties our nation to far-flung conflicts, sends our troops into harm’s way, and endangers them once they’re in conflict zones,” said Gen. Zilmer, who led our Marine forces in Iraq from 2006 to 2007, in The Hill.
“Despite known ties between the global oil market and terrorism, we continue to rely on oil to fuel our transportation industry, inadvertently funding our enemies and putting the lives of our men and women in uniform in harm’s way,” wrote Mayor Ballard in Midwest Energy News.
Our senior Washington director, Aaron Huertas, moderated a panel discussion at the National Building Museum on climate change and the built environment. C-SPAN covered the panel live. Aaron's opening remarks focused on what he asks climate scientists to emphasize when discussing their research, including local effects of climate change and the differences between past, natural warming and today's rapid, industrially driven climate change. Earlier this summer, the American Chemical Society named Aaron's science communication blog a "must read."
At this year’s annual Exxon shareholder meeting, CEO Rex Tillerson got a question from a recent chemistry graduate whose grandfather, James F. Black, first warned company executives about climate change risks nearly 40 years ago. Anna Kalinsky asked Tillerson if the company would reconsider its membership in organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council, which contradict the research her grandfather and other Exxon scientists have done over the years. Tillerson said no, but working with ClimateTruth.org and Cater Communications, Anna was able to challenge the company’s thinking and underscore the value of scientific research in outlets including the BBC, Grist, Dallas Morning News, Reuters and Democracy Now.
Joining the inter-generational effort to hold Exxon accountable, Claudia Black-Kalinsky – Anna’s mother and James Black’s daughter - worked with ClimateTruth.org and Cater Communications to author and place an op-ed for the Guardian, arguing the company should finally heed his warnings and stop funding groups that reject climate science and block climate policy. “Instead of confusing the public on climate change,” she wrote, “Tillerson should channel the company’s incredible resources – including its scientists and lobbying muscle – to solving it.” The op-ed was shared more than 4,000 times online, including by Elon Musk on Twitter, and generated more than 400 comments.
A pioneering partnership among six San Francisco Bay Area hospitals is harnessing technology to improve healthcare for the region’s most vulnerable patients. The PreManage ED system facilitates collaborative treatment for patients who typically turn to emergency rooms as their first point of contact for healthcare, sometimes as often as three times per week. The hospitals, operated by Sutter Health and Alameda Health Systems, are using technology to ensure that emergency departments, community health clinics and social service agencies can share health records, care plans and other relevant patient data in real time, to deliver comprehensive, cost-effective care and improve patient access to services. Working with communications firm Message LA, Cater helped plan and execute PreManage ED’s launch, which earned coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle, Kaiser Health News, Healthcare Informatics, Modern Healthcare, Hospitals and Health Networks Magazine, Healthcare IT News, Public News Service, KGO-AM and several other outlets.
When global energy leaders flocked to San Francisco for the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) in June, the California Clean Energy Fund hosted 100 cleantech entrepreneurs from around the world to showcase today’s greatest innovations in clean energy technology. Cater Communications executed an outreach strategy that included connecting with dozens of clean energy organizations and companies, creating ads for CEM materials and securing media placements in top-tier publications such as New York Times, Bloomberg Television, KQED Forum, Fortune and the San Francisco Chronicle.
With a 1,378 percent increase in just five years, solar energy generation is undergoing explosive growth in California. So are clean cars: clean vehicle adoption has increased 244 percent in just two years. These are a couple of the findings from Next 10’s 2016 California Green Innovation Index, which tracks key economic and environmental indicators at the international, national, state and regional levels. The eighth annual Index was compiled by Beacon Economics and released by Cater Communications on behalf of non-partisan organization Next 10. The report found unexpected parts of California, such as the Inland Empire, leading the state in terms of growing the clean economy and generating solar energy. The Index, which identifies California as a global leader in growing its economy without increasing its per capita greenhouse gas emissions, received national and state-wide coverage in The Atlantic, San Diego Union-Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, KPCC, Los Angeles News Group, Sacramento Business Journal and The San Bernardino Sun.
Strong national fuel-economy and emissions standards provide a cost-effective “insurance policy” against future fuel price shocks for automakers, and maintaining the standards is in the economic interest of automotive suppliers, regardless of whether gas prices rise or fall. That’s the finding of a policy brief commissioned by Ceres and produced by independent automotive industry analysts. Cater Communications helped release the report, which was cited in outlets nationwide including the Detroit News, Bloomberg and The Car Connection.
Faced with high housing costs, California’s low- and middle-wage workers are packing up and moving out of state. This is perhaps the most important takeaway from a series of reports commissioned by non-partisan organization Next 10 and produced by Beacon Economics, which analyzed California's housing market, net migration and employment by income. The reports were released by Cater Communications and generated coverage in the Los Angeles Times, KQED, Southern California Public Radio (KPCC), the San Diego Union-Tribune and other outlets. Using Next 10’s groundbreaking Compare 50 tool, which compares U.S. states across 150 indicators, the reports caution that despite high rates of job growth, California could face a shortage of workers as people are forced out of state by rising housing prices.
Fuel economy standards are dramatically lowering global oil use. And that’s good news for the U.S. economy, according to a report on oil market futures from the International Council on Clean Transportation, Cambridge Econometrics and Pöyry Management Consulting. Cater Communications helped release the report ahead of a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace event on oil, and it was cited in Bloomberg News and The Car Connection. Cater Communications also developed an infographic demonstrating where oil-use reductions are coming from.