Somebody is living lavishly…
Despite spending more than $500,000 on private jets since 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to describe climate change as an “existential” threat, one which the U.S. has a “moral” obligation to address.
But, campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission show Pelosi’s campaign paid Advance Aviation Team, a Virginia-based private aviation provider, more than $437,000 between October 2020 and December 2021, and another $65,000 to a California-based private jet provider.
As has long been established, private jets are terrible for the environment. They produce between 5 and 14 times the emission per passenger as commercial flights and account for 50% of the world’s aviation emissions.
But mere months before Pelosi described tackling the climate crisis as a “religious thing,” her campaign spent $67,605 on private air travel.
Addressing a United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland in November, Pelosi said, “For me, it’s a religious thing,” saying she believed “this is God’s creation, and we have a moral obligation to be good stewards.”
These statements were made after receiving backlash in September for comments about climate change being a higher priority to discuss with China than the nation’s numerous human rights abuses.
But, Pelosi isn’t the only one ignoring the “moral” obligation by using private aircraft.
President Joe Biden’s campaign, which had promised to make climate change a key priority in his presidency, spent more than $15 million on private air travel during his 2020 campaign.
Another culprit, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), a vocal advocate for combating climate change, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Advanced Aviation Team in recent years.
Biden-appointed U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, has also been an offender. He took a private jet to accept the Arctic Circle award for climate leadership in 2019.
In defense of the ride, Kerry said it was “the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.”
