John Kerry took private jet to Iceland for an environmental price, called it ‘only choice for someone like me’

President Biden’s recently appointed climate czar John Kerry took a private jet to Iceland in 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle Award for Climate Leadership, Fox News has learned.

Kerry defended her high-pollution run at the time, calling it “the only choice for someone like me who travels the world to win this battle” in an interview obtained by Fox News. The incident had not previously been reported in the US press.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who led the Arctic Circle Roundtable, criticized Kerry for traveling to the event by private jet, Icelandic newspaper RUV reported.

Kerry received the award, which took the form of an iceberg sculpture, for being “a cohesive voice lobbying US officials to commit to tackling environmental issues,” noted the media.

Icelandic journalist Jóhann Bjarni Kolbeinsson confronted Kerry at the event about her choice of transportation, asking, “I understand you came here on a private jet. Is this a green way to travel?”

Kerry responded by saying it was the only way. “If you offset your carbon – it’s the only choice for someone like me traveling the world to win this battle,” Kerry said.

“I negotiated the Paris accords for the United States,” he added, referring to the multilateral climate agreement signed while he was Secretary of State under President Obama.

“I have been involved in this fight for years. I negotiated with [Chinese] President Xi will bring President Xi to the table so that we can get Paris. And I believe the time it takes me to get somewhere, I can’t cross the ocean. I have to fly, meet people and get things done, ”Kerry said, avoiding the fact that he chose a private jet over a commercial flight.

JOHN KERRY’S FAMILY STILL OWN A PRIVATE JET AS SOON AS HEADS CLIMATE COMBAT, FAA RECORDS INDICATE

“But what I’m doing, almost full time,” he continued, “is working to win the battle against climate change, and in the end, if I compensate and contribute my life to doing that, I’m not going to be put on the defensive. “

It is estimated that private jets emit up to 40 times more carbon per passenger than commercial flights.

It is not known how Kerry offset his carbon output, as he claimed, but flight logs indicated his family’s private jet had spent over 20 hours in the air in the past year – resulting in approximately 116 metric tonnes of carbon emissions.

For comparison, a March 2018 report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that the typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This calculation assumes a car that travels about 11,500 miles per year with a fuel economy of about 22.0 miles per gallon.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

As Fox News previously noted, the Kerry family owned a private charter jet company that the longtime Democrat appeared to benefit financially. As recently as 2013, financial disclosure from staff in his executive branch showed Kerry owned “over $ 1,000,001” in assets for the charter company Flying Squirrel LLC through his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry. , heir to the Heinz ketchup fortune.

THE JOHN KERRY FAMILY PRIVATE JET EMITTED 116 METRIC TONS OF CARBON IN THE LAST YEAR

Kerry’s financial disclosures from 2009 to 2012 also showed this amount. In his 2013 disclosure, the former secretary of state reported between “$ 50,001 and $ 100,000” in rent and royalties for the company. This figure exceeded 1 million dollars in its version of 2012 and between 100,001 and 1,000,000 dollars for 2013. Other information indicated rental income in excess of 1 million dollars for 2011, from “100,001 to 1,000,000 dollars ”for 2010 and“ 100,001 to 1,000,000 dollars ”for 2008.

The revelations of Kerry’s outsized carbon footprint came as Democrats contested proposals to overhaul the country’s energy economy, with potentially explosive costs for households and Americans.

Biden’s climate proposal would cost at least $ 1.7 trillion. That could increase, however, depending on how Democrats negotiate with him in Congress, where progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have insisted on passing the ambitious Green New Deal.

During the campaign, Biden said he would use the Green New Deal as a framework for his climate plan, although his proposal costs much less than other plans that have adopted this framework. Either way, Biden’s plan targets the kind of economy-wide transformation advocated by more left-wing members of his party.

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This included achieving net zero emissions by 2050, which the Heritage Foundation said would cost the economy millions of jobs, thousands of dollars in lost household income and wiped trillions of dollars from the economy. gross domestic product of the country.

The conservative nonprofit used the National Energy Information Administration (EIA) model to predict the impact of high carbon taxes aimed at achieving net greenhouse gas emissions.

Not only did the model crash, but it failed to approach the target described in the GND. The closest Heritage was able to achieve was a 58% reduction in emissions, achieved through a carbon tax of $ 300 – taxes over $ 300 crushed the EIA model.

A reduction of just 58% is estimated to cost the economy $ 15 trillion in lost gross domestic product and an average of 1.1 million jobs per year by 2040. The average family of four would also see a total loss of income of $ 165,000, or nearly $ 8,000 each year.

Just weeks after taking power, the Biden administration had already cost jobs in the United States by revoking the federal permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline. TC Energy, the company that owns the pipeline, warned on opening day that it “would directly result in the layoff of thousands of unionized workers.” Rob Darden, CEO of the Distribution Contractors Association (DCA), also said the completion of the pipeline “would have created 10,000 well-paying American union jobs.”

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., And Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., argue that the cost of inaction on climate change is unsustainable. According to Sanders, solutions such as infrastructure and investments would also boost the US economy. Biden’s campaign website predicted that his climate response could create 10 million “high paying jobs.”

Sanders had previously warned that without action on climate change, the United States “would lose $ 34.5 trillion by the end of the century.” He also predicted savings of up to $ 70.4 trillion over 80 years by “averting a climate catastrophe.”