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Should we keep account of the Climate Czar's carbon footprint? 

Let me know what you think:

If there ever was a meeting that should be an email, it has to be the United Nations’ climate conference.

“There is no escaping the concrete fact that the journey with the lowest carbon footprint is no journey at all,” the organizers acknowledge, admitting “it is time to face the reality that online delegation is a realistic alternative to in-person attendance, and should be seriously considered wherever possible.”

While waging a relentless war on American-made energy, hundreds of Biden administration bureaucrats jet off to the UN climate conference every year, nevertheless. The gas is always greener when you’re burning fossil fuels in the name of saving the planet, apparently.

Along with Senators Tom Cotton and Shelley Moore Capito, I asked the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to calculate the greenhouse gases emitted from the Biden administration’s frequent flier miles to the annual get together. 

The plane truth is no one knows. Even though President Biden signed an executive order requiring agencies to track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from travel, GAO reports the State Department still does “not have a systematic way to calculate greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. delegation travel.” 

Adding up the emissions from Biden’s climate convoys is just too exhausting, literally.

GAO was able to count the number of Biden bureaucrats who traveled to the last two UN climate conferences, however, and the numbers are shocking.

Last year, the president’s official Climate Envoy, John Kerry, headed a delegation of 259 officials from 17 different agencies and offices and—with no sense of irony— “launched the Net-Zero Government Initiative, inviting governments to lead by example and achieve net-zero emissions from national government operations.”

That’s a significant increase from the still-sizable 192-person U.S. delegation that showed up at the conference held just a year earlier in Scotland. President Biden was among those in attendance, arriving aboard Air Force One and then being escorted in a motorcade including at least 20 vehicles. Once he was seated at the gathering, “Sleepy Joe” dozed off as the speaker announced, “this conference is one of the most important meetings in history.”

President Biden dozed off during the UN climate summit as the speaker proclaimed, “this conference is one of the most important meetings in history.”

This is how the president is leading by example?

The Biden Administration insists “there is no substitute for attending COP meetings in person,” so it “is exploring ways to decrease emissions and costs by, for example, increasing direct flights where possible.”

Folks, we’ve had enough of the hot air.

If there ever was a meeting that should be an email, it has to be the United Nations’ climate conference that attracts hundreds of Biden bureaucrats every year, including Climate Czar John Kerry.

For these reasons, I am awarding my June 2023 Squeal Award to John Kerry, whose world tour didn’t stop with the last UN conference. Kerry attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January, stating “it was truly extraordinary” to be part of a “select group of human beings … able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving the planet.” In April, Kerry was off to Japan to attend the G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy, and Environment.

To keep an accounting of Kerry’s carbon footprints, I have introduced the Executive Branch Emissions Transparency Act, requiring a continuing calculation of the fossil fuels emitted by the travels of the climate czar, the president, and the rest of the Biden administration.

Squeal Award: Climate Czar John Kerry
 

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