President Joe Biden and his top officials are increasingly coming under fire for their private plane use, even as the administration is determined to limit greenhouse emissions of the kind those jets produce in abundance.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and even Biden himself have all faced scrutiny for use of private jets fueled by carbon compounds and taxpayer dollars.
Most recently, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has turned down repeated requests for information related to the taxpayer costs of 23 flights Buttigieg and his advisers took on government private jets since taking office.
The DOT and the agency’s Freedom of Information Act office both declined to detail how much each flight cost taxpayers over the course of multiple months and in recent weeks. The stonewalling comes amid an ongoing inspector general audit of Buttigieg’s use of the planes, which are part of a small fleet managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
BUTTIGIEG STONEWALLS KEY INFORMATION ON 23 GOVT JET TRIPS AMID INSPECTOR GENERAL PROBE
“It’s inexcusable that Secretary Buttigieg’s agency is hiding the detailed costs of these taxpayer-funded flights,” Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director of watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, told Fox News Digital. “Federal law dictates a timely release of exactly these types of records to the public.”
“The American people are entitled to know the true cost of Buttigieg and his entourage of staffers flying private to destinations that have readily available commercial options.”
Last month, John Kerry’s family quietly sold their private jet to a New York-based hedge fund following intense criticism of the plane’s carbon footprint in light of Kerry’s work fighting global warming.
Fox News Digital reviewed FAA registration information that revealed that Kerry family’s private jet, a Gulfstream GIV-SP, is no longer owned by his family’s charter firm, Flying…
