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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has spent over $500,000 on private jets since 2020 despite repeatedly describing climate change as an “existential” threat the U.S. has a “moral” obligation to address.
According to campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission, Pelosi’s campaign paid a Virginia-based private aviation provider, Advanced Aviation Team, over $437,000 between October 2020 and December 2021 and over $65,000 to Clay Lacy Aviation, a California-based private jet provider.
JOHN KERRY FAMILY PRIVATE JET EMITTED ESTIMATED 116 METRIC TONS OF CARBON OVER PAST YEAR
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington Aug. 25, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Private jets are notoriously bad for the environment, producing significantly more emissions per passenger than commercial flights. Pelosi’s campaign spent $67,605 on private air travel just months before she said she viewed tackling the climate crisis as a “religious thing.”
“For me, it’s a religious thing,” she said in November after leading a 21-member congressional delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. “I believe this is God’s creation, and we have a moral obligation to be good stewards.”
Pelosi came under fire in September after she claimed climate change was even more of a priority to discuss with China than its multitude of human rights abuses.
“Climate is an overriding issue, and China is a leading emitter in the world,” she said at the time.
President Biden reacts after signing an executive order on project labor agreements at the Ironworkers Local 5 in Upper Marlboro, Md., Friday, Feb. 4, 2022. Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, right, applaud. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Pelosi is far from the only climate hawk to indulge in private airfare.
The campaign for President Biden, who promised to make climate change a key priority of his presidency, spent over $15 million on private air travel over the course of his 2020 campaign. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has also been vocal about climate change and being “committed to curbing the effects of climate change,” but they have paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to Advanced Aviation Team in recent years.
Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, took a private jet to Iceland in 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle award for climate leadership.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry attends the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, Nov. 12, 2021. (REUTERS/Yves Herman)
Kerry defended his high-pollution ride at the time, calling it “the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle” in an interview obtained by Fox News.
In August 2021, Fox News Digital calculated that Kerry’s family jet already emitted approximately 30 times more carbon in 2021 than the average vehicle does in a year.
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Pelosi’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry Sunday by Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Sam Dorman contributed reporting.