Pelosi reaches $700K in gas-guzzling private jet payments despite pushing green energy
Gabe Kaminsky
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Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) paid tens of thousands of dollars more from her campaign for private jet travel, despite promoting climate change policies that take aim at the fossil fuels industry, records show.
Pelosi, a longtime backer of green energy policies, came under fire for her private jet travel as she led House Democrats in passing President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping climate and energy bill that may cost taxpayers up to $1.2 trillion over 10 years. The congresswoman’s campaign paid over $43,600 in March to the charter aircraft company Advanced Aviation for private jet travel, bringing her total jet expenses to almost $700,000 since late 2020, according to campaign finance disclosures.
PELOSI PROMOTES POLLUTION CONTROL YET SPENDS NEARLY $500,000 ON PRIVATE JETS
“She has an incredible amount of money to afford things that the average American will not and cannot have in their lifetime, and that’s how she wants to spend her money,” Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “What her policies have done is create, not only inflation, but the demise of millions of people’s accounts through causing instability in the marketplace.”
On average, private jets are a 10 times more “carbon-intensive” form of transportation than commercial flights, Transport & Environment, a European energy group headquartered in Belgium, said in an April 2021 report. Private jets are also five to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights and 50 times more polluting than trains, according to the report.
Pelosi’s campaign has made 14 payments to Advanced Aviation, averaging roughly $42,400, since October 2020, according to disclosures. Her campaign paid over $349,500 during the midterm elections for charter aircraft, accounting for roughly $51,300 spent on in-kind travel to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in September of that year.
The Virginia-based Advanced Aviation, which is listed in disclosures as being used by Republicans and Democrats for travel since 2015, offers a variety of private jet options, ranging from a turbo prop seating up to eight passengers to ultra-long-range jets that can fit up to 18 passengers and can fly for up to 16 hours, according to its website. The company also offers helicopters that, like the other travel options, come equipped with WiFi.
In terms of travel as a whole, Pelosi’s campaign spent a total of $61,481 during the first quarter of 2023, mostly on commercial airfare with United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Delta Air Lines, according to disclosures.
The former House speaker has supported phasing out fossil fuels, tweeting in April of last year, “Oil and gas execs are hoarding their bonuses and profits on the backs of working people who have to drive to earn a living despite the price at the pump.”
“Their greed is making our case to fight corporate monopolies, diversify our energy sources and transition from fossil fuels,” she added.
https://twitter.com/TeamPelosi/status/1519436231234387969?lang=en
In 2018, the congresswoman, after Democrats retook the majority, reestablished the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which released a report in 2022 that alleged the “climate crisis” is “putting America’s security and stability at serious risk and threatening our economy, our way of life, and our communities.”
“As Speaker Pelosi stated, the Select Committee’s work was not intended to be just an academic endeavor, but to guide major climate legislation across the committees to make informed recommendations and deliver on our moral obligation to children and future generations,” the report said. “Government action alone cannot meet the scope and potential devastation of climate crisis. This is why the targeted actions of the federal government designed to spur private investment are crucial to unleashing, expanding, and deploying the technologies necessary to respond to the challenge of our lifetimes.”
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Pelosi’s latest private jet payments come after Democratic campaigns and liberal political action committees spent at least $1.4 million on charter aircraft during the midterm elections, according to disclosures. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has backed “ending our dependency on fossil fuels,” has paid three private jet firms, N-Jet, Mac Jet Charter, and Apollo, over $416,800 between 2017 and 2022, according to disclosures.
Pelosi’s campaign did not return a request for comment.