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Michael Bloomberg targets Pam Bondi, other attorneys general with ads on carbon emissions

 
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City will run millions of dollars in political television ads against four state attorneys general who are suing the Obama administration over new regulations on carbon emissions from power plants. In Florida, the spot describes Pam Bondi, a Republican, as "an attorney general for polluters, not for us."  The ads are being paid for through Bloomberg's political arm, Independence USA PAC. [Image from video]
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City will run millions of dollars in political television ads against four state attorneys general who are suing the Obama administration over new regulations on carbon emissions from power plants. In Florida, the spot describes Pam Bondi, a Republican, as "an attorney general for polluters, not for us." The ads are being paid for through Bloomberg's political arm, Independence USA PAC. [Image from video]
Published Nov. 6, 2015

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City will run millions of dollars in political television ads against four state attorneys general who are suing the Obama administration over new regulations on carbon emissions from power plants.

The ads, which Bloomberg's advisers said would cost more than $10 million across four states, signify a new venture for the billionaire philanthropist, who has spent heavily from his personal fortune to try to limit the number of coal-burning power plants nationally.

They amount to a defense of the White House over its Clean Power Plan, which have been met with opposition, primarily — but not only — from Republican-elected officials. But Bloomberg's goal, his aides insist, is to explain how the issue of clean energy impacts people in major cities and living near power plants.

Still, the ads will run in four states that are historically presidential battlegrounds, and on an issue that has gained increasing attention from both political parties. The ads will run in Florida, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin, and target Republicans and Democrats. The lone Democrat in the group of four, Chris Koster of Missouri, is running for governor next year.

The ads will begin running over the coming days, with two of them describing the attorneys general as accepting donations from "polluters" and bowing to special interests. In Florida, the spot describes Pam Bondi, a Republican, as "an attorney general for polluters, not for us."

The ad targeting Koster portrays him as an opponent of President Barack Obama's environmental agenda, and as someone who is not doing the right thing by Missouri's families.

In Michigan, a similar commercial will accuse Attorney General Bill Schuete of "putting polluters and his campaign contributors ahead of protecting Michigan families." The ads are being paid for through Bloomberg's political arm, Independence USA PAC.

"These four attorneys general are trying to stop the president from doing something that I think is terribly important," Bloomberg said in a telephone interview. "I want the public to know what they're doing. It's very bad for everybody."

Bloomberg's political spending has focused primarily on gun control in recent years, and has sometimes been to his detriment, generating enormous criticism for the former mayor. The National Rifle Association and others have often lampooned him as an out-of-state billionaire, in the hopes of neutralizing the impact of his backing.

Bondi responded by calling Bloomberg a bully.

"Florida has a great and conscientious track record of improving its air quality and protecting its environment,'' she said in a statement. "Now a billionaire bully is attacking Florida, and 23 other states, for having the audacity of defending their citizens against the EPA's heavy-handed and unlawful regulations. This bully wants to defend the federal government; we want to protect the people we serve."

Andrew Whalen, a spokesman for Koster's campaign for governor, said Koster "works for the people of Missouri, not a New York City billionaire."

He suggested that the cost of the Clean Power Plan in the state could reach several times more than what the state spends on education, adding, "While a double-digit electric bill jump might not affect someone with Michael Bloomberg's bank account, it would devastate seniors on fixed incomes, working families and small businesses across the state."

Aides to Schuete, as well as to the attorney general of Wisconsin, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

The four targets of the ads are members of a broad group of attorneys general who are jointly suing the Environmental Protection Agency to block the new regulations, which would limit carbon emissions from power plants and reduce the amount of coal used by states. The opposition to the regulations includes concerns about an overreach by the federal government, as well as fears that the new emissions standards will prove costly for states to meet.

A rival lawsuit has been filed by officials in other states, led by Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York, seeking to support the Obama administration in its effort. The suits have become the latest flash point in the policy wars during the Obama administration, in a fight that members of the coal industry often call the "war on coal."

And unlike with guns, an issue that Bloomberg has spent at least $50 million on through ads and the group he formed, Everytown, his advisers think there is less passion among voters for protecting coal-burning power plants. And unlike governors or senators, attorneys general are often lesser-known figures in their states, and Bloomberg's advisers say their polling shows that to be true of the four attorneys general, so they are hoping their ads can define these officials in the minds of voters as being anti-environment. Two of the Republican attorneys general that are targets of the ads would face re-election in 2018, and the third in 2020.

Howard Wolfson, a political adviser to Bloomberg, said the ads were also intended to put attorneys general "on notice" that attention would be paid to their actions.

Bloomberg, who is the U.N. secretary-general's special envoy for climate change and cities, has spent $60 million on a campaign called Beyond Coal, founded by the former Sierra Club president Carl Pope after the failure of the cap-and-trade bill in 2010.

The former mayor said he was not concerned about the possibility of political pushback in the form of rival ads from figures in the coal industry, which include the billionaire oil magnates Charles and David Koch.

People can't "go through life afraid to say something," Bloomberg said. "We do live in partisan times."

Bloomberg would not guess as to how many other attorneys general he might target, but said his goal is to "send a message."

"I can't run ads in favor of people I think are doing the right thing or opposed to everyone who isn't," Bloomberg said. "Even I don't have that kind of money."