President Joe Biden's focus on climate change as an "existential threat" has featured multiple shady components, notably including unconstitutional attempts to use executive fiat to shutter fossil fuel-fired power plants. In addition to such prominent attempts to force an energy "transition" as part of his 2020 campaign pledge to "end" fossil fuels, the Biden administration also has less-notable actors working behind the scenes to implement an agenda without going through Congress.
We all remember John Kerry, the former Secretary of State-turned-Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) in Biden's White House. The position was silly, and Kerry became infamous for "fighting climate change" by traveling around the globe spewing millions of tons of emissions until he departed in early 2024.
Kerry's post was not immediately filled, with Biden announcing Clinton and Obama alum John Podesta would instead take the lead on "global climate efforts" in the role of Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy — an advisory post focused on "interagency" efforts that meant Podesta conveniently did not need Senate confirmation. The White House has insisted that Podesta's "role is not a replacement for SPEC," but Biden's new climate warrior has been doing SPEC duties, including meeting with foreign leaders.
Now, members of Congress from both chambers want answers from the Biden State Department and its secretary, Antony Blinken, about Podesta's efforts, his role, and why Congress was prevented from exercising oversight of Biden's international climate policy.
In a letter, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID), and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) demand some clarification.
"Rather than nominate Mr. Podesta to the SPEC role, which would require confirmation with the advice and consent of the Senate under legislation signed into law in 2021, President Biden appointed Mr. Podesta to a new position based in the White House that appears to have striking similarities to the SPEC role previously held by Secretary Kerry," the lawmakers' letter notes.
What's more, the letter points out that Podesta himself, in an interview with the Washington Post last month, stated "I am still at the White House but coordinating with them [the SPEC office] in these international negotiations." Those negotiations include meeting with foreign leaders "on at least two occasions since assuming his new position," the letter adds. As Townhall reported earlier this month, Podesta led the U.S. negotiations in climate talks with the Chinese Communist Party in D.C.
"Mr. Podesta’s coordination with the SPEC office and international representation of the United States in meetings with foreign leaders to discuss international climate policy appear to far exceed the characterization of Mr. Podesta’s role in the initial response to the Committees as merely leading ‘interagency coordination’ for the administration’s international climate policy," the letter emphasizes.
"In light of this apparent overlap of duties between what Secretary Kerry undertook as the SPEC and what Mr. Podesta is now undertaking as a ‘Senior Advisor,’ we request information on the roles and responsibilities of the SPEC and the Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy, as well as information on ongoing or planned coordination between these two entities," lawmakers demand.
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