Biden's climate czars free of congressional oversight

FPI / February 2, 2021

President Barack Obama's practice of using policy czars that are "untouchable" and "hidden away from oversight" is being copied by Joe Biden's team, a columnist noted.

Biden's team has chosen two such czars to handle climate: Gina McCarthy will be the domestic climate boss, and John Kerry will handle international climate issues, Paul Bedard noted in a Jan. 28 op-ed for the Washington Examiner.

Biden "has put a major focus on climate change, requiring every agency in government to consider global warming," Bedard noted. "His appointment of the two czars is a clear signal that it is his No. 1 issue."

West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said he is concerned that, unlike agency heads, “czars” aren’t required to testify before Congress, yet can wield far more power and influence than a Cabinet secretary.

“But what role is Gina McCarthy going to have? She's a climate czar. What role is John Kerry going to have? He's the international climate czar. My concern is that I can’t bring a climate czar into my committee and ask them what they're doing. That is a very, very, worrisome dynamic,” Capito said.

In an interview last week with the BBC, Kerry insisted that only nine years remain to save the planet from so-called manmade climate change.

Kerry was asked about the United Nation’s COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, scheduled for November.

“Glasgow will be extremely important,” Kerry said. “In fact, I would say that in my judgment, it is the last best chance the world has to come together in order to do the things we need to do to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis.”

“Three years ago, we were told we have 12 years to avoid those consequences,” Kerry said. “Three of those years were lost because we had Donald Trump, who didn’t believe in any of it. And now we have nine years left to try to do what science is telling us we need to do.”

Kerry also admitted that even if the U.S. achieved “zero” emissions today, it would not solve the problem of climate change because the vast majority of emissions come from other countries.

The U.S., in fact, became energy independent under President Donald Trump and significantly reduced emissions on Trump's watch.

Kerry may be a new climate appointee, but he is a long-time climate hypocrite.

The former secretary of state and failed presidential candidate still owns a private jet, according to FAA records.

Fox News reported: "Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records indicate that the family of U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry owns a private jet, despite his position on combatting fossil fuels in the new administration.

"The FAA’s registry shows a Gulfstream Aerospace jet owned by Flying Squirrel LLC, the name previously reported for Teresa Heinz-Kerry’s private charter jet company. The company’s listed address matches that of the Heinz Family Foundation.

"According to FAA records, the jet’s registration certificate was issued in July of 2005 and expires in October of 2023."

The report noted that private jets are estimated to emit 40 times as much carbon per passenger as commercial jets.

In 2010, then-Sen. Kerry was found to have docked his $7 million, 76-foot luxury yacht in Rhode Island, thereby avoiding paying some $500,000 in taxes in his home state of Massachusetts.

A July 2019 report in Jacobin magazine noted: "The world's superyacht fleet uses over thirty-two million gallons of oil and produces 627 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year — all of it for the personal enjoyment of the extremely rich. The world's superyachts consume and pollute more than entire nations."

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