House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is looking more closely at talks regarding Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s climate negotiations with China.
Kerry is engaging in negotiations without having been confirmed by the Senate. While this isn’t illegal, it seems as if a lot of responsibility is being given to someone who’s engaging in international negotiations and setting policy on climate.
“For the past two years, the Biden Administration has withheld information on John Kerry’s role within the Administration despite the committee’s many requests,” Comer told Fox News Digital in a statement. “He was not confirmed by the Senate. He is not held accountable by the American people. He is skirting congressional oversight and that is unacceptable.”
What is John Kerry negotiating? No one outside the White House is sure.
“His reported upcoming negotiations with the Chinese on climate topics, an action which he has done on numerous occasions, is inappropriate and potentially undermines U.S. interests and domestic energy security,” he continued. “Mr. Kerry’s continued engagement in shady negotiations will be met with intense scrutiny by the committee.”
The top Republican lawmaker added that the panel sent letter last week to Secretary of State Antony Blinken related to Kerry’s role as special envoy at the State Department. Comer said he expects “nothing less than full cooperation” from the agency.
Comer announced in February that the Oversight Committee would open a probe into Kerry’s secretive negotiations with Chinese climate diplomats.
What is John Kerry binding the U.S. to in any agreement he’s looking to complete with China? Will it be like the deal with Iran — one that didn’t require Senate confirmation?
The State Department claims there’s nothing unusual going on.
“Secretary Kerry last spoke virtually with his counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, in April as part of their ongoing conversations on the critical work needed to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “He has been invited by Xie Zhenhua to visit China at some point in the future and continue these conversations in person, but no formal plans for this meeting have been made.”
China is far and away the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet — three times the atmospheric CO2 than the U.S. The last climate agreement signed by the U.S. in Paris essentially gave China a pass on emissions. The Chinese have taken advantage of that by constructing two coal-fired electric plants every week.
What is John Kerry giving away this time?
Since President Biden appointed him as the first-ever SPEC, Kerry’s office has been tight-lipped about its actions and has declined to share details about its internal operations, sparking criticism from Comer and other Republicans. Meanwhile, he has jet-set around the world, attending high-profile climate summits and diplomatic engagements on behalf of the U.S. government in an effort to push a global transition from fossil fuels to green energy alternatives.
As part of that effort, Kerry has engaged in various private talks with Chinese counterparts, including two 2021 meetings that took place in China. Following a regional climate summit in April 2021, Kerry told CNBC that solving climate change was “not about China.”
Of course not. Kerry doesn’t want to hurt the feelings of the Chinese by pointing a finger at them and showing them up to be “carbon polluters.”
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