Report: State Dept Worked With NGOs to End Coal

The Biden administration's State Department worked with left-wing nonprofit environmental organizations before it joined an international anti-coal coalition, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

The department's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, which until early this year was led by former Secretary of State John Kerry, discussed key policy issues with nonprofit interest groups, according to internal agency emails reviewed by the Free Beacon.

The emails were obtained this month via an information request by watchdog group Protect the Public's Trust.

The nongovernmental organizations looped in by the State Department's lead climate office included the California-based Sierra Club.

The news comes as the House Oversight and Accountability Committee probes the SPEC office's coordination with eco groups.

Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told the Free Beacon his committee continues to review separate documents showing the Biden administration "caved to pressure by leftist climate groups" seeking to end construction of new coal plants and phase out all coal worldwide by 2040.

"Evidence continues to mount showing a sophisticated, targeted approach by radical environmental groups to influence the Biden administration's domestic and foreign policy," Comer told the Free Beacon. "The Oversight Committee will continue to press the Biden administration for information related to Envoy Kerry's position and his office's ability to bind the United States to agreements at the detriment of American consumers and businesses."

Among the items in the emails, Steve Herz, a senior attorney and international climate policy adviser at the Sierra Club, invited Kerry and other administration officials to attend the June 2021 "grassroots leadership climate summit" hosted by the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth.

Herz said the summit would focus on issues "the U.S. government needs to address internationally" including "shutting down coal," the Free Beacon reported Tuesday.

Kerry and then-senior SPEC adviser Lauren Sanchez then attended the Sierra Club-Friends of the Earth summit.

"Government of, by, and for the people demands transparency and accountability," PPT Director Michael Chamberlain told the Free Beacon. "The actions of John Kerry's secretive climate office are anathema to those qualities."

The administration this year has undertaken anti-coal initiatives. In May, the administration proposed an end to new coal leasing from federal reserves in the most productive coal mining region.

The Bureau of Land Management proposal would affect millions of acres of federal lands and underground mineral reserves in the Powder River Basin area of Wyoming and Montana.

In April, the administration approved a new wind project off the Massachusetts coast that is large enough to provide more electricity than the state's former coal-fired generating station.

In January, it was announced that White House senior adviser and veteran Democrat strategist John Podesta would replaced Kerry as U.S. special climate change envoy.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.