FIRST ON FOX: Home Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is probing the State Division over its obvious coordination with environmental teams pushing to shutter international coal energy.
In a letter despatched Friday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Comer revealed that his committee obtained emails between Particular Presidential Envoy for Local weather John Kerry’s workplace and environmental teams just like the Pure Sources Protection Council (NRDC) exhibiting in depth communication about plans to oppose coal energy. Officers particularly mentioned becoming a member of the Powering Previous Coal Alliance (PPCA), a gaggle the U.S. formally joined in December.
“To meet our goal of 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035, we need to phase out unabated coal, and we urge the world to join us in doing so, while working to grow good-paying clean energy jobs,” Kerry stated in an announcement on Dec. 2 from the COP28 United Nations local weather summit in Dubai.
“Together with the Powering Past Coal Alliance, we will be working to accelerate unabated coal phase-out across the world, building stronger economies and more resilient communities,” he added. “The first step is to stop making the problem worse: stop building new unabated coal power plants.”
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Particular Presidential Envoy for Local weather John Kerry attends the UNFCCC Formal Opening of COP28 on the United Nations COP28 Local weather Change Convention on Nov. 30, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Mahmoud Khaled / COP28 by way of Getty Pictures)
Comer expressed issues in his letter Friday that Kerry’s final resolution to hitch the PPCA was closely influenced by nongovernmental organizations which will, in flip, be coordinating with international actors. Notably, the NRDC has significant operations and funding in China which the group says is geared toward helping efforts to decarbonize the nation’s economic system.
Comer additionally famous that coal-fired power plants proceed to generate a big share of the nation’s whole electrical energy. In 2022, coal accounted for 20% of whole U.S. electrical energy technology, second solely to pure gasoline, in keeping with the Power Data Administration.
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“Documents produced to the Committee reveal that the State Department sought and received feedback from leftist environmental groups on the [PPCA] and enabled those groups to influence U.S. foreign policy,” Comer wrote to Blinken. “These documents raise significant concerns that confidential information related to U.S. foreign policy, energy policy, and national security policy, have been shared with these groups, including in off-the-record meetings with Envoy John Kerry.”
“The PPCA announcement was the latest example of Envoy Kerry and the Biden Administration taking actions under the guise of climate advocacy that undermine our economic health and threaten foreign policy priorities while avoiding congressional scrutiny,” the Oversight chairman continued.
Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., arrives for a Home Oversight and Accountability Committee listening to on Sept. 13, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)
For instance, Comer pointed to a March 2021 exchange in which State Department officials “solicited and received guidance” from the NRDC in regards to the PPCA. One official wrote to NRDC leaders referencing an off-the-record briefing held earlier that morning and requesting extra details about international efforts to part out coal manufacturing.
In response, NRDC worldwide analyst Han Chen linked the State Division with one other eco group, E3G, and lauded PPCA for its work driving nations to “announce earlier coal plant closures through the process of qualifying to join the PPCA.”
One month later, in April 2021, the NRDC, E3G, Sierra Membership, Options for Our Local weather, and World Sources Institute authored a memo emailed to State Department officials highlighting their assist for the U.S. to hitch the PPCA. They stated becoming a member of the alliance would assist President Biden’s objective to decarbonize the U.S. energy grid by 2035.
“These exchanges raise concerns as to what information Envoy Kerry and the SPEC office are providing to organizations like the NRDC in exchange for this information,” Comer’s letter to Blinken continued.
“The Committee is concerned that U.S. government officials providing similar nonpublic information to such groups could enable them to provide it to foreign governments for efforts undermining U.S. national and energy security,” he wrote.
The recently-shuttered DTE Power River Rouge coal-fired energy plant is pictured in River Rouge, Michigan, on April 19, 2022. (Erin Kirkland/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)
Comer then requested a series of documents and communications associated to the State Division’s resolution to hitch the PPCA. He requested for the data to be submitted to his committee by Jan. 19 and additional requested a staff-level briefing on the subject.
The State Division, NRDC and PPCA did not instantly reply to requests for remark.
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In considered one of his first actions main the Oversight Committee, Comer opened a probe in February into Kerry’s workplace over its negotiations with China. And in Might, Comer once more promised “intense scrutiny” of Kerry’s China local weather talks.
The probe introduced Friday is a part of Comer’s broader oversight into Kerry’s workplace and actions representing the U.S. in local weather negotiations on the world stage.
U.S. local weather czar John Kerry is greeted by prime Chinese language diplomat Wang Yi earlier than a gathering within the Nice Corridor of the Individuals on July 18, 2023, in Beijing, China. (Florence Lo-Pool/Getty Pictures)
Shortly after taking workplace in 2021, Biden appointed Kerry to be the U.S. SPEC, a place that hadn’t beforehand existed, did not require Senate approval, and provides him a spot on the president’s cupboard and Nationwide Safety Council. The SPEC workplace is housed on the State Division and has an estimated $13.9 million annual price range with approval for 45 personnel.
Since assuming the position, Kerry has traveled worldwide, attending high-profile local weather summits and diplomatic engagements in an effort to push a worldwide transition from fossil fuels to inexperienced power alternate options.
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Regardless of the high-level position main the Biden administration’s international local weather technique, Kerry’s workplace has been tight-lipped about its internal operations and workers members, sparking criticism from Republicans, together with Comer, who’ve demanded transparency from his workplace.
