Climate czar John Kerry accused of hypocrisy over private jet emissions
Fox News contributor Douglas Murray joined "Fox & Friends" to discuss Kerry's 'hypocrisy' as progressives face backlash over their far-left green energy push.
FIRST ON FOX: Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry's family quietly sold their private jet to a New York-based hedge fund following intense criticism of the plane's carbon footprint in light of Kerry's work fighting global warming.
The Kerry family's private jet, a Gulfstream GIV-SP, is no longer owned by his family's charter firm Flying Squirrel LLC., according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) registration information reviewed by Fox News Digital.
In financial filings submitted since joining the Biden administration, Kerry had reported that his wife Teresa Heinz-Kerry owned a stake worth more than $1 million in the firm.
The plane's registered owner is now listed as AV Aviation LLC., a small firm based at the Waterbury-Oxford Airport in Connecticut. Documents filed with the Connecticut state government shows that AC Aviation is a subsidiary of the New York City hedge fund AC Investment Management which specializes in renewable energy and clean technology investments and manages funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
FAA filings suggest that the plane was transferred from Flying Squirrel to AC Aviation on Aug. 22. Four days later, an individual named Yvonne Rivera requested the FAA place an industry-level Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) on the aircraft to block it from being publicly tracked, according to information obtained by Fox News Digital via Freedom of Information Act.
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Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Jan. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
However, the plane, which most recently flew from Connecticut to Los Angeles this week, is still trackable.
"Secretary Kerry travels commercially in his role as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate," Whitney Smith, a spokesperson for Kerry, told Fox News Digital in a statement. "I can confirm the plane previously owned by his wife’s family was sold last summer."
Smith added Kerry doesn't have a relationship with AC Investment Management and wasn't involved in the LADD request.
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AC Investment Management declined to comment on its purchase of the plane.
The sale of the Gulfstream came about a month after Kerry — whom President Biden appointed to the high-profile climate role in January 2021 — was heavily criticized for his continued ownership of the plane.
Fox News Digital reported in late July that the jet had made a total of 48 trips lasting more than 60 hours and emitted an estimated 715,886 pounds, or 325 metric tons, since Kerry assumed the position.
President Joe Biden greets Kerry in Iowa on Feb. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Kerry, though, has previously defended his use of private jets to travel. In 2019, he told Icelandic reporter Jóhann Bjarni Kolbeinsson that he has to "fly to meet with people and get things done," that he had devoted his life to fighting climate change and that he offsets his carbon consumption.
Private jet travel, which is by far the most carbon-intensive mode of transportation, emits 10 times more carbon than commercial planes and 50 times more carbon than trains, according to a 2021 report from the group Transport & Environment.
"The problem with folks like John Kerry and the climate hypocrites who run the green movement is that they want to use the coercive power of government," Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power The Future, told Fox News Digital in an interview in July. "They want to use the power of government to deny the rest of us the ability to use those fossil fuels that they take for granted."
In his role as special presidential envoy for climate, Kerry travels around the world, attending high-profile climate summits and diplomatic engagements in an effort to push a global transition from fossil fuels to green energy alternatives.
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In addition to Turner, Kerry was also blasted by Republican lawmakers, some of whom have opened inquiries into his use of private jets to travel.
"The Biden administration is wildly out of touch with every day Americans," Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital in July. "While Biden officials fly around in private jets and preach about their woke green agenda, Montana families are worried about paying sky-high gas costs and heating their homes."
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