That’s the impression a combination of 24 elected City of Pittsburgh, County of Allegheny, State of Pennsylvania officials (and one federal official) have foisted on the public in a local full-page newspaper ad paid for by – drum roll, please — an environmental group.
The ad is the latest salvo in retort to President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the socialistic redistributionist deal known as the Paris climate accord.
In making his announcement, and to make his point, the president noted that he was elected to represent the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto lashed out publicly, repeatedly, arguing that withdrawing from the voluntary deal was not representative of Pittsburgh’s mindset on the matter.
The ad was signed by Peduto, Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald, the county controller, three county council members, seven city council members, two state senators, eight state representatives and one U.S. congressmen. All are Democrats.
The main thrust of the ad? “Pittsburghers overwhelmingly support action on climate change.” (bold in the original).
But do they, really?
That’s curious, considering a poll (published in the New York Times in March; poll done by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication) that suggested, in part, that only between 40 and 50 percent of Pittsburghers “believe global warming will harm me, personally.”
Not only is that not “overwhelming,” it’s not even a majority.
The ad was paid for by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center and an undisclosed donor or donors. The amount was not disclosed. No taxpayer dollars were used, a center spokesman said, who added that his group approached the politicians about doing the ad. It and the mayor’s office worked in concert to design the ad.
PennEnvironment is a boilerplate environmental group, touting the dubious benefits of solar and wind energy while constantly raising alarms about fracking for shale gas and oil.
Which brings us to this salient point: Who represents the 60 percent to 50 percent of Pittsburghers who don’t believe global warming will harm them personally?
Certainly not the 24 city, county, state and federal leaders who signed the PennEnvironment-solicited ad.
Now, there is a nuance to all this – wiggle room created by the environmental group in comments made to a local newspaper. One spokesman said “we knew that most, if not all, the elected officials for the city really had a different view on energy and climate change.”
Added another: “We do a lot of work here in Pittsburgh. We talk to a lot of people across the area – a lot of elected officials – and overwhelmingly what we found is that Pittsburgh wants climate action. They want to remain part of the Paris agreement, and really oppose this action that was being taken in our name.”
The same spokesman said PennEnvironment wanted to demonstrate “that there are people who are representing Pittsburgh and are against this terrible decision.”
But, again, the main thrust of the ad claims that “Pittsburghers overwhelmingly support action on climate change.”
And if a majority of Pittsburghers don’t believe it will harm them personally, it’s difficult to make the claim that they overwhelmingly support action on climate change, is it not?

Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).