4 times politicians displayed hypocrisy, forsook mandates
John Kerry took a private jet to receive an environmental award
Earlier this month, former Secretary of State John Kerry, who now serves as President Joe Biden’s climate czar, received pushback after it was reported that he took a private jet to receive an environmental award in Iceland in 2019.
In response to an Icelandic reporter who asked him if traveling to the conference on a private jet was an environmental way to travel, Kerry said, “it's the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.”
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the leader of the Arctic Circle Roundtable, reportedly criticized Kerry’s choice to travel on a private jet.
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Kerry’s family-owned and benefited financially from a private charter jet company, according to Fox News. Private jets are estimated to emit up to 40 times as much carbon per passenger as commercial flights, according to aviation firm Honeywell Aerospace.
Fox News estimated that Kerry’s jet produced an estimated 116 metric tons of carbon emissions last year, while the average passenger vehicle only produces about 4.6 metric tons per year.
Earlier this month, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., tweeted: “Why does John Kerry get to pretend like the rules don’t apply to him?”
“I’m not sure flying across the world in a private jet while simultaneously trying to put the workers who supply your fuel out of a job is a winning strategy as climate czar,” Cassidy argued.
An executive order on day one of the Biden administration is estimated to cost the jobs of thousands of Keystone XL oil pipeline workers in favor of a clean energy economy, which is said to produce solar jobs.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., also tweeted that Kerry told pipeline workers whose jobs were destroyed by the Biden administration to "go install solar panels.”
"But Kerry can't sacrifice enough to fly commercial?” Cotton added. “What a fraud.”
Under President Obama, Kerry helped negotiate the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation and said he works to win the battle on climate change “almost full time.”
