WASHINGTON—During a Senate Judiciary hearing Wednesday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz exposed China’s shady efforts to infiltrate the American energy sector and leave the United States dependent on Beijing for so-called green energy.
“We are witnessing right now a systematic campaign against American energy,” Cruz said at the hearing. “There is a coordinated assault by the radical Left, backed and paid for by the Chinese Communist Party, to seize control of our courts, to weaponize litigation against US energy producers all in order to undermine American energy dominance.”
Cruz in particular focused on Energy Foundation China, a group with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The senator cited a report from State Armor, which found that “To secure U.S. dependence, the CCP has been co-opting the progressive American climate change lobby to push a transition from fossil fuels and other critical inputs…onto ‘green’ technologies controlled by China.”
By funneling money through the foundation, the report claims, the CCP has funded many climate advocacy groups in America, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is well known for its litigious character.
“Their lawsuits are designed to destroy the American energy industry, which happens to perfectly coincide with the political objective of Senate Democrats to destroy the American energy industry,” Cruz said.
Cruz continued by exposing the Climate Judiciary Project, which claims to be impartial and uninvolved in litigation, but reportedly trains and supports judges presiding over cases of climate litigation.
Cruz pointed out that Energy Foundation China, which is run by former CCP officials, is funding litigation groups working to flood the courts with cases against American energy companies. These cases then come before judges trained by leftist-funded climate advocacy groups.
“This three-pronged strategy — foreign funding, mass litigation, and judicial indoctrination — is a full-spectrum assault on American energy independence,” Cruz said. “And while China drills and digs, we sue and shut down.”
“While China prepares for energy dominance, the American Left prepares to attack our own domestic capability.”
Ranking Member Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) called Cruz’s claims a “conspiracy,” arguing that the oil industry’s “dark money” schemes were more concerning.
“The hearing ignores that the fossil fuel industry has, for decades, benefited from secret funding to wage war on the American consumer by making energy more expensive and dirtier,” Whitehouse said.
Whitehouse also dismissed the claim that China was indirectly providing funds to litigious groups. Energy Foundation China, he argued, seemed focused on addressing Chinese environmental concerns, not advocating for legislative change in the United States.
Whitehouse said, “Fighting Chinese pollution in China […] is a very different thing than having a Chinese conspiracy that funds a litigation group here in the United States.”
From 2001 to 2020, the EFC has paid out nearly $1.02 billion in grants to hundreds of different organizations seeking climate reform, according to a report by Influence Watch. The Climate Judiciary Project paid an undisclosed amount toward its judicial education programs.
Scott Walter, the president of the Capital Research Center, was among those testifying about the role the CCP might play among American climate lobbyists and judges.
Asked about the motives of the CCP officials who founded Energy Foundation China, Walter said he was “skeptical that former Chinese communist officials are interested in doing anything that would harm their country.”