https://x.com/JamesMelville/status/1847903285732094380
"The jet-setting former senator pulled down a $5 million salary in a no-show job as chairman of Bank of America’s global advisory council, $125,000 in consulting fees from something called The Rise Fund, which was founded by U2 singer Bono, and $382,400 in speaking fees from Waste Management and Deutsche Bank, among dozens of others.
Kerry was also president of the Vietnam Sustainable Energy Corp. and chairman of the advisory board for Climate Finance Partners, entities that could benefit from decisions made by Kerry as climate czar. He received a $39,000 salary from Yale University, his alma mater, and a $112,500 “honorarium” from MedStar Washington, according to his filing, reviewed by the Herald.
In a statement, the State Department says he got rid of assets that could pose a conflict of interest and were identified by the Ethics Office.
Among those were about three dozen energy-related companies dealing in electric, oil and gas — even nuclear — precisely the kind of energy Kerry and his climate crisis pals want us all to get rid of. An analysis by ABC News revealed that in March Kerry divested between $4 million and $15 million in assets from more than 400 companies. The assets were part of a huge stock portfolio held by him and his wife, ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz. Included in those stock sales was up to $15,000 in Cabot Oil & Gas, up to $50,000 in gas company Valero and up to $50,000 in Conoco Philllips, as well as stock in a half dozen other energy companies.
“The State Department’s Ethics Office reviewed Special Presidential Envoy Kerry’s assets and investments upon his appointment to identify holdings that could pose a significant risk of a conflict of interest,” the State Department spokesperson said. “Special Presidential Envoy Kerry agreed to divest the assets identified by the Ethics Office and has done so.”
Special Presidential Envoy Kerry was finally forced to disclose his financials because of the position he’s in in the White House, but it took awhile. The Biden administration refused for weeks to release Kerry’s financial disclosure to Fox News, then put it out in an end of the week news dump.
Kerry has not had a good start in the Biden administration, as we all in Massachusetts knew would happen. He was spotted aboard a commercial flight without his mask on; it was revealed that he took a private jet to Iceland for a conference in 2019; and most recently, leaked audio appeared to reveal that Kerry told Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif about Israeli air strikes against Iranian assets in Syria.
Kerry came out and vigorously denied the allegation but some Republican lawmakers called on Kerry to resign from the National Security Council."
"Kerry helped broker a historic deal that committed the world to a transition away from all fossil fuels for the first time at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai last year. Major fossil-fuel-producing countries including the United Arab Emirates signed on, in part due to their optimism about carbon capture, a view shared by all the world’s major oil companies.
The US built generous tax credits for CCUS into the Inflation Reduction Act in the hope that the technology will take off. Even so, its high cost and complexity means that few projects are yet to get off the ground. Climate groups have claimed that it’s merely a ruse to prolong the life of fossil fuels and have said it would be better to move straight to cleaner forms of energy."