State Armor released a report demanding an investigation into Energy Foundation China (EFC), a Chinese energy group tied to the Chinese Communist Party that works to deepen U.S. reliance on Chinese green technology. State Armor cites EFC's work as a great risk to national security, especially following recent reports by Reuters of "Rogue communication devices found in Chinese solar power inverters." Further reliance on Chinese technology gives Beijing the ability to cripple the U.S. from within, without having to engage in direct warfare. The report by State Armor was followed by a letter to Congress, in the hopes that an investigation might generate a response to an increasingly blatant national security threat.
Energy Foundations China (EFC) is a United States-based organization registered as a 501(c)(3) and headquartered in San Francisco, California. The group was founded by Hal Harvey, a climate activist who has deep ties to numerous left-wing political organizations. The current CEO and President, Ji Zou, previously worked for the CCP as the deputy director general of China’s National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation. He was also a member of China's delegation to the 2015 Paris Climate Talks. Zou is not the only CCP-linked staff member.
According to State Armor, EFC has spent millions bankrolling climate change advocacy groups who fight to phase out fossil fuels and encourage investment in green energy alternatives, including the Rocky Mountain Institute and the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). The NRDC was subject to an inquiry by Congress in 2018, as it received so much funding from China, there were talks of registering the group as a foreign agent. EFC has given millions to the International Council of Clean Transportation, which was an active supporter of former President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.
Not only does EFC fund advocacy groups, but they have also provided grants to notable American universities to fund climate policy research. These universities include the University of California (UC) Berkeley, UC Los Angeles, Harvard, and the University of Maryland. EFC also currently has board members who are faculty in universities, including Tufts University and American University.
EFC has also facilitated coordination between American and Chinese officials. It provided support for an event in 2023 featuring none other than California Governor Gavin Newsom during his visit to China. It has also hosted a multitude of forums to discuss low-carbon cooperation between China and the U.S.
With EFC funneling millions to progressive climate groups, the question is: Are American progressives fighting to save the planet, or doing the CCP’s dirty work? In their haphazard rush to push green energy policies, the Left has gotten too comfortable with the world’s top polluter and America’s greatest enemy.
Will Hild, the Executive Director of Consumers Research, a conservative non-profit, said in response to the report:
State Armor’s report exposes a disturbing truth: Energy Foundation China is covertly trying to destroy American energy independence and stifle President Trump’s America First energy agenda in order to increase reliance on Chinese companies. EFC is weaponizing woke ideology to pull off this scheme and force American consumers to rely on the Chinese Communist Party for energy sources. Americans deserve to know the truth about our foreign adversary’s campaign that is poisoning our economy and reshaping our energy future.
President Trump and Congressional Republicans have been vocal in their opposition to green energy policies in the last decade. They have continued to fight against the shutdown of oil pipelines, overruled California's electric vehicle mandate, and continued to expand the harvesting of America's vast natural gas resources. But all of this work could be too little, too late, unless Chinese reliance is wholly cut off.
Even the Chinese climate envoy in 2016, Zhenmin Liu, was quoted as saying,
More and more states, local governments, enterprises, and think tanks in the U.S. support global climate action...Both the energy transition actions to address climate change and low-carbon development actions have already brought benefits to many places in the U.S. Therefore, even if the new Trump administration reverses climate change policies, it is unlikely to completely change the green transition actions that have already begun in various parts of the U.S.
In other words, CCP officials are skeptical that even unfriendly administrations to green energy policies are unlikely to reverse the growing dependence America has on CCP green technology. This grants China a growing and continued opportunity to undermine American national security from within.
If the U.S. is to maintain global dominance, especially in opposition to the CCP, it first requires reduced reliance on its goods, specifically goods that are crucial to American energy, defense, and technological infrastructure.
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