Surely Sen. Ed Markey did not have Climate Czar John Kerry in mind when he filed his bill taxing “fat cats” flying around the world in carbon-polluting private jets.

Markey said that one percent of the world’s population is responsible for half of all aviation emissions.

“The one percent can’t free ride on our environment and our infrastructure at a discount,” Markey said.

Markey last week sent out an email seeking signature support for his bill.

It can’t be true about Kerry, though. Markey owes his Senate seat to fellow Democrat Kerry. So, it is unlikely that he would turn on him.

But hardly had Kerry finished taking a beating before a Republican-led committee hearing for allegedly flying around the world on private jets, then Markey filed his bill blasting the rich for flying private and polluting the world.

Kerry’s explosive hearing before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on oversight — where Republicans were gunning for him — took place Thursday, July 13. Markey filed his bill the following Wednesday.

And in case you did not get his tax-the-rich message, Markey calls his bill the “FATCAT” act. It stands for the Fueling Alternative Transportation with Carbon Aviation Tax. It’s Markey’s idea of a joke. It adds almost a $2 surcharge to the current fuel tax per gallon for private jet travel.

In filing the bill, Markey said, “Billionaires and the ultra-wealthy are getting a bargain, paying less in taxes each year to fly private and contribute more pollution than millions of drivers combined on the roads below.”

Or to put it in another way, Markey maintains that one hour of flying private negates the climate benefits of driving an electric car for an entire year.

“It’s time to ground these fat cats and make them pay their fair share so that we can invest in building public transportation that communities across the country and our economy need,” he said.

“Not convinced?” Markey’s staff asked in a follow-up email last week. “Get this: private jets pollute as much as 14 times more than commercial flights and 50 times more than trains.”

Markey, a former member of the House, was elected to fill Kerry’s Senate term in 2013 after Kerry resigned to become President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

Markey got a jump on any potential opponents back then after Kerry gave him advance notice of his resignation. As it was, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch of South Boston ran anyway but lost to Markey in the Democrat primary. Markey has held the seat ever since.

While it is far-fetched to think that Markey targeted Kerry, the coincidence is interesting.

After belittling Kerry over his world-traveling climate change diplomacy, Kerry was hammered by GOP committee members over his climate change trip to China, as well as his use of private jets.

Rep. Michael McCaul, committee chairman, said China was not an honest broker and was firing up fossil coal plants “pretty much every day if not (every) week.”

But it was GOP Rep. Cory Mills of Florida who got Kerry’s goat when referred to claims that Kerry used private jets to get around.

Kerry, obviously angered, said the charge was “one of the most outrageously persistent lies” against him.

He said that since his appointment as Joe Biden’s climate envoy, he has flown entirely on commercial planes or military planes, not private jets.

Kerry said it was “a stupid lie” that he traveled by private jet to attend the hearing.

The Heinz/Kerry family jet, a Gulfstream GIV-SP that Kerry once used, was apparently sold a year ago following a series of negative stories.

Given his haughty demeanor and elusive government lifestyle, Kerry in many ways is his own worst enemy, as well as a public relations disaster.

Much of the ridicule and animus toward him goes back to October 2019 when he traveled by private jet to Iceland to receive an award that could have been mailed to him after a Zoom appearance.

Asked about it, Kerry said that his travel by private jet was “the only choice for somebody like me.”

No doubt Eddie Markey, despite his bill, agrees.

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist.