Miller Public Affairs Group
Off-Road Diesel
The Challenge
Owners of off-road diesel equipment - primarily construction contractors, but also the ski, airline, mining and other industries – faced the promulgation of an off-road diesel engine regulation targeting PM and NOx emissions that threatened their core business model.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB), after working on this regulation for five years longer than originally anticipated and amending it to include NOx at the last minute, released the final regulation less than two months prior to its scheduled vote on them. Miller Public Affairs Group was retained to assist the construction industry in raising awareness about the impact this regulation would have on the industry, economy and workers with the public, lawmakers and board members. The initial goal was to delay the vote on the regulation to allow more time for an agreement to be reached on compromise language.
The Miller Public Affairs Group Approach
Increasingly, the political and public opinion environment as it relates to clean air, water and land issues is less on the side of industry and more on the side of environmental protection. In addition, voters recently had passed an historic infrastructure bond package. As a result of these two forces shaping the landscape, we recommended that the construction industry approach the regulatory process from a position of cooperation and use language that was geared toward bringing all the stakeholders together to develop a regulation that BOTH protected the environment and the economy.
The Miller Public Affairs Group Solution
We developed a set of core messages focused on the willingness of the industry to work together to develop a win-win solution for business and the environment, outlined the technological challenges the regulation presented, highlighted the negative economic impact this regulation would have on construction contractors, construction workers and the economy as a whole and discussed the ramifications this regulation would have on the buying power of the infrastructure bonds passed by voters in 2006. These core messages served as the basis for the grassroots, legislative advocacy and media components of our campaign.
Simultaneously, we built a broad coalition of construction contractors, labor unions and infrastructure stakeholders called the “Coalition to Build a Cleaner California,” designed to have maximum impact on lawmakers, the public, Governor Schwarzenegger and the Board. We primarily used regular email blasts/calls to action and direct mail to motivate this coalition to send letters to these key decision makers. At the CARB hearing in May 2007 more than 1000 letters from Coalition members generated as a direct response to our direct mail were delivered to the Board.
Through key reporter and editorial writer briefings, earned media events, opinion editorials and letters to the editor we raised awareness of this issue with the public and in targeted lawmakers’ and Board members’ districts. We generated several editorials in favor of the industry and garnered a substantial amount of positive media coverage.
In addition, we worked behind the scenes with the legislative advocacy team to develop a coordinated strategy to reach the Governor’s Office, the Legislature and CARB members with our message.
As a result, we successfully secured a delay in the CARB vote on this rule in May 2007.