Sometimes it takes a little gas to try to stop more gas.
At least that was the logic of the Biden administration, which flew more than 400 government officials to two U.N. climate change conferences in Scotland and Egypt, spewing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
The Government Accountability Office says the Biden team flew at least 192 people to the annual global warming talks in 2021, held in Scotland, and flew 260 people to the talks last year in Egypt. The result: a dirtier planet, at least in the near term.
GAO was not able to calculate the exact carbon footprint of the U.S. delegation, though it did say the State Department’s 66 employees who flew from Washington to Egypt for last year’s COP27 accounted for 85.7 metric tons. That’s like running about 18 cars for a typical year’s worth of use.
The U.N., which organizes the conference, said travel accounts for nearly three-quarters of all greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the annual conference.
Republican senators requested the audit.
Sen Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican and one of those lawmakers, said Thursday she is introducing a bill to require future calculations of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to Mr. Kerry and the rest of the travelers.
“The gas is always greener when you’re burning fossil fuels in the name of saving the planet,” she said. “The double standard is clear, and Americans have had enough of this hot air.”
The lawmakers said the heavy U.S. attendance was all the more galling because it appears to fly in the face of President Biden’s 2021 executive order directing agencies to track and reduce emissions from travel, or what’s known as “scope 3” emissions.
“In the Biden administration, the same people who are closing down power plants across the country and forcing Americans to buy electric vehicles are also the ones flying to climate conferences and using fossil fuels without apology,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia Republican.
Mr. Kerry, the White House climate czar, was a particularly large part of the U.S. delegation’s footprint. The GAO said he brought 32 others with him to last year’s conference in Egypt, most of those “advisers.”
Indeed, of the 260 people GAO says the administration sent, 199 were “advisers.”
The total also doesn’t include the 14 members of Congress and 62 congressional staffers, 10 state and local government officials and 15 nongovernmental advisors, GAO said.
The numbers are just those who were credentialed to attend the conference. It doesn’t include support personnel such as the president’s security detail.
GAO ran its report by the State Department, which defended the flights.
The department told investigators the U.S. had to send a large emissions-spewing delegation to show it is serious about cutting emissions.
The department said there’s no substitute for being on site because informal meetings are where deals get done. That can’t be replicated through virtual meetings.
And the department said whatever emissions resulted from all the travel paled compared to the new commitments nations made at the U.N. confabs to reduce their future emissions.
State Department officials acknowledged they haven’t come up with a way to calculate total greenhouse gas emissions from travel, but promised they are working on it. The difficulty is that participants make their own travel arrangements from their agencies.
The department also said it is searching for ways to cut emissions for all travel, including by urging the use of direct flights or trains.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.