House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer has sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing his concern over Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s relationships with eco groups pushing to shut down coal production in America.
According to Fox News, the House Oversight Committee obtained emails between Kerry’s office and environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) showing extensive communication about plans to oppose coal power. Officials specifically discussed joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance (PPCA), a group the U.S. formally joined in December.
Kerry dropped some aggressive anti-coal rhetoric at the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai last month.
“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 said.
“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.”
Comer’s concern? Kerry’s green agenda is a potential threat to national security.
“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,” he continued.
In his letter, Comer points to many exchanges in which State Department officials “solicited and received guidance” from anti-coal eco groups.
“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 writes in his letter to Blinken.
“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.
Comer and his committee have every right to be concerned. He requested all documents and communications on the State Department’s decision to join PPCA.
He likely won’t like what he finds…
