By Scott Jennings
Peritus
Senior Strategist

On Tuesday, January 19, the policy landscape in Washington D.C. changed dramatically with the election of Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts to the U.S. Senate. Much of the focus following his election has been on health care, but climate change and other energy legislation will be greatly affected as well.

Last year, the U.S. House passed a cap-and-trade bill that was already running into a strong headwind in the U.S. Senate. Following Brown’s election, Senate Republicans pounced on cap-and-trade and essentially rendered it dead. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader from Kentucky, said there was “little enthusiasm” for it. Democrat Byron Dorgan of North Dakota admitted that it was highly unlikely the Senate would take up a complex issue like cap-and-trade following a bruising battle over health care reform that cost Senate Democrats their supermajority, a situation unthinkable to Democrat leaders just a couple of weeks prior to Brown’s victory.

The key reason Democrats won’t be able to move cap-and-trade is that they cannot afford to pursue more confusing legislation that their constituents believe is harmful to the economy and job creation, the issue voters rank today as the most important. But that’s not to say some sort of energy legislation won’t move. In fact, there seems to be momentum in Washington to deal with less polarizing proposals that may be palatable to a bipartisan group of lawmakers, such as creating tax incentives to encourage development of renewable sources of energy.

Another offshoot of the climate change issue began late last year when President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made an “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gasses threaten human health. That finding enables the EPA to make rules limiting carbon emissions without congressional approval.

Now, some members of Congress are strategizing to block the EPA from proceeding down this path. Many businesses and industry groups that have engaged lobbyists and public affairs firms to influence Congress against cap-and-trade should now turn their focus to supporting congressional efforts to block the EPA from regulating carbon emissions.

One key message is that rulemaking of this sort can be devastating to the economy. Regulatory problems caused by such rulemaking will endanger job creation in states that cannot handle more economic obstacles. This message will be particularly potent in 2010, as congressional candidates will be looking for ways to show they are fighting for jobs and against government meddling that threatens them.

Today, polling indicates that Republicans are likely to win back more territory in November’s congressional elections. That would put advocates for more stringent environmental laws at a severe disadvantage through at least 2012, and improve the outlook of manufacturers and business owners who have been warily watching Congress to figure out if their cost of doing business was about to go up.

No matter which way the political winds blow, U.S. policymakers will be wrestling with complex climate and energy issues for years to come. These matters will require skilled government and public affairs practitioners to help formulate the arguments and muster support for the viewpoint of American business. Now more than ever, it is critical for businesses with substantial interests at stake in Washington D.C. to engage in public affairs activities that help achieve their objectives.

I call it the “new public affairs,” where lobbying activities are joined by grassroots organizing and coalition building to achieve a desired outcome. Some deride these campaigns as “Astroturf,” but you certainly can’t look at what happened in Massachusetts as manufactured outrage. Real people voted for Scott Brown and the change he represented, and there are millions of Americans just like those from Massachusetts who are chomping at the bit to vote and have a say in policy matters in Washington D.C.

To effectively deliver a message and successfully navigate a world that continues to be extremely volatile, a good public affairs campaign should contain a multi-faceted approach that combines lobbying with grassroots organizing, alliance development, earned media efforts, and social networking. Now more than ever, finding people and key allies to support the efforts of lobbyists on a particular issue can be the difference between success and failure.

Running a coordinated, multi-layered approach using social media, internet video content, and other “new media” platforms can often help break through the clutter coming at congressional offices from all directions. Now is not the time for businesses to relent in their pursuit of a more favorable business climate, and running smart public affairs campaigns that deliver messages across multiple platforms is a good way to help achieve their goals.

Scott Jennings is Senior Strategist at Peritus, a full service public relations and public affairs firm. He served as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush from 2005-2007.