In a letter sent to US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday, Kris Kobach, Attorney General of Kansas, is calling for a China-focused energy group to be shut down amid reports of its alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and promotion of “climate lawfare.”
According to its website, Energy Foundation China (EFC), headquartered in the US, “is a committed partner in the global effort to address one of the greatest threats facing our world—climate change—by accelerating the sustainable energy transition.”
The EFC summarizes its agenda for climate change with the following goals:
- “Supporting research and pilot projects and educating stakeholders on the impacts of climate change and the transition required to mitigate those impacts.
- Facilitating the flow and exchange of information and best practices on climate change.
- Helping to inform the policy process to reduce emissions.”
The EFC states, “Prior to 2019, EF China operated jointly with the United States Energy Foundation as a single institution.” The two foundations split that year and became separate 501(c)(3) charities.
“Our work is currently focused on China given the scale of its energy sector and its role in global emissions. Supporting progress in China’s energy transition presents one of the most significant opportunities to address climate change worldwide,” the EFC further states.
Kobach’s letter to Bondi states that the EFC is not the nonprofit it claims to be and has ties to the CCP. Moreover, the organization reportedly files climate litigation harmful to US energy production and consumptions.
“The EFC claims to be a nonprofit headquartered in San Francisco, but its staff is concentrated in Beijing and has close ties to the CCP. Not surprisingly, the EFC appears to support actions that align with China’s strategic interest in boosting alternative energy production systems in which China controls crucial supply chains for necessary minerals, batteries, solar panels, and other energy technologies,” Kobach wrote. “This CCP connection—centered around the EFC—places a whole new lens over the climate lawfare campaign occurring in U.S. courts. It is one thing to watch left-wing law firms and non-profits use laws designed to impose extraterritorial burdens to advance their radical policy interests in the courtrooms of America to the detriment of our consumers and our economy; but when such legal actions are tied to China, it likely reveals a foreign adversarial attack on American energy independence.”
Kobach declared that his office is “intent on stopping this campaign of environmental lawfare, no matter where it is being waged, and…likewise committed to stopping the CCP from undermining the American economy and the American consumer.”
