Biden climate czar John Kerry’s office sought to brief him off ‘paper,’ emails show
Gabe Kaminsky
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Several top Biden administration officials in special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry’s office discussed briefing him on budgets for fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023 on the phone or in person as opposed to putting details “on paper,” a fact raising transparency concerns among a watchdog group.
Deputy climate envoys Rick Duke and Sue Biniaz, SPEC climate finance managing director Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, then-senior adviser Jesse Young, and other undisclosed government officials emailed about plans in March 2022 to discuss budgets with Kerry, according to records obtained by Protect the Public’s Trust. Kerry’s SPEC office, which is housed under the State Department, oversees climate and energy policy and has hired employees hailing from various pro-green energy environmental groups.
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“I would also suggest a call or meeting soon with jk to update him on FY22 and 23, focusing on all the elements we can’t put on paper,” Martinez-Diaz emailed various officials on March 9, 2022, with a subject line titled, “updated memo for JK on FY23 budget settlement.”
In response, an official whose name was redacted wrote back, “I’d love to do that, and we’ll try for it,” adding that Kerry could be free for a “more in-depth convo” within two days.
The emails were shared by PPT to Fox News and the Washington Examiner.
“Worst comes to worst, I’ll likely have at least a few minutes with JK before he arrives on-site tomorrow at the conference,” emailed Young, who was former policy lead between 2017 and 2021 for Oxfam America, a left-of-center nonprofit group, according to his LinkedIn profile.
PPT received the records in 2022, but names of officials were redacted, leading to the watchdog suing the State Department in March of that year to compel further disclosure of records and titles, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The watchdog seeks further documents showing meeting requests, communications, and calendar items, PPT’s director Michael Chamberlain, a former Education Department official under former President Donald Trump, told the Washington Examiner.
“It appears as though the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate believes that the American public will cede tremendous authority to them without any expectation of transparency,” he said. “The Biden administration has pledged to be the most transparent in history. If that vow is to have meaning, a good place to start would be with this office, which is leading the way in pursuit of one of their signature goals, ‘saving the planet,’ to quote John Kerry.”
“Yet, despite the importance of their mission, our lawsuit has revealed that the desire to operate under a cloak of secrecy appears to be very strong,” Chamberlain added.
In November 2020, President Joe Biden appointed Kerry as climate envoy. The former secretary of state under President Barack Obama has traveled internationally to discuss climate with foreign leaders, as the Biden administration prioritizes green energy over fossil fuels.
The White House announced on Tuesday that the administration will shell out $450 million for green energy and solar farms projects at former and current coal mining sites. SPEC officials have been handpicked from influential groups taking steps to fight climate change. For instance, Martinez-Diaz previously worked for the World Resources Institute, an environmental research group, according to her LinkedIn profile.
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Duke was a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a left-wing think tank, and worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group that has taken aim at fracking, his LinkedIn shows.
“While this specific FOIA request remains in litigation, we note that the President’s final budget request for FY 23 was fully published in its entirety,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner in response to an inquiry about the records obtained by PPT.