Chris Lange, FISM News
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An environmental nonprofit group that has influenced the Biden administration’s climate policies has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a Fox News report.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a New York City-based non-profit organization with over $450 million in assets, has worked “closely” with the White House and is “in regular communication” with Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry concerning the administration’s energy policies, according to State Dept. emails obtained by watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust.
Since the mid-1990s, NRDC has performed extensive work on China’s climate issues, according to the report, which also shows that several of the organization’s top officials have worked directly for the CCP or for Chinese government-sponsored institutions. In addition to its Manhattan location, the organization has an office in Beijing.
NRDC’s Chinese language website states that the group is “registered under the Beijing Municipal Security Bureau and supervised by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China,” according to Fox.
Through its legal efforts, the NRDC has opposed U.S. domestic oil and gas drilling programs, coal plants, the Keystone XL pipeline, and critical mineral mining projects.
NRDC in the past has praised China for its “serious commitment to turning its cities into healthier places to live and currently leads the world in renewable energy installation and electric vehicle penetration.”
China produces nearly 30% of global emissions, nearly triple that of the U.S.
The group also proudly announced in December 2019 that it had filed its 100th lawsuit against the Trump administration.
“No administration is above the law — and NRDC will continue to prove that,” the organization said at the time.
Fox points out that the IRS does not require public disclosure of donor information from nonprofit organizations and that “[i]t is unclear whether the NRDC accepts direct or indirect funding from individuals or organizations affiliated with the Chinese government.”
GOP lawmakers sounded the alarm over NRDC’s ties to the CCP back in 2018 and said the issue will be a “top priority” if Republicans retake the House in November.
“The ties environmental groups, like NRDC, have to China is something we are continuing to keep close tabs on,” a spokesperson for House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We’ve done a lot of oversight [in] this Congress and it will continue to be a top priority for Ranking Member Westerman if we take back the House.”
Westerman and former Rep. Rob Bishop (R.-Utah) penned a joint letter to the NRDC in 2018 asking for information about its ties to the CRP and suggesting that the organization might be required to register as a foreign agent.
“The NRDC’s relationship with Communist China has many of the criteria identified by U.S. intelligence agencies and law enforcement as putting an entity at risk of being influenced or coerced by foreign interests,” wrote Westerman and Bishop, who at the time served as chairman of the National Resources Committee.
The letter asserted that China regularly engages in “extensive perception management campaign[s]” to increase its global power, suggesting that the organization is shaping America’s energy policies under the guise of saving the planet from global warming.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the managing director of NRDC’s international program, Amanda Maxwell, wrote:
We strive, in all of our offices, to build teams centered around the most knowledgeable and effective staff available. In approving our advocacy positions, in Communist China and the United States, we rely on our U.S.-based executive leadership, and no one else.
“And there’s no question that all major emitters of greenhouse gases – including the United States, the European Union, China, India, Russia, and others – must work to cut the carbon pollution that’s driving the climate crisis,” she added.
Neither the State Department nor the White House responded to Fox’s requests for comment.