Bernie Sanders, climate hawk, spends nearly $300K on private jet travel in month

By Peter Hasson

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s re-election campaign spent just under $300,000 on private jet use in October, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

The Sanders campaign, which is funded primarily by small-dollar donors, paid Apollo Jets $297,685.50 on Oct. 10, FEC records reveal. The payment was marked for “transportation.”

“This expense was for transportation for the senator’s 9-day, 9-state tour to support Democratic candidates up and down the ballot ahead of Election Day,” campaign spokeswoman Arianna Jones told local website VTDigger.com, which first reported on the jet expenses.

“This cost covered the entirety of the tour from Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, California, and back to Vermont,” Jones said.

Sanders’s private jet use comes despite the senator’s hard-line stance on climate change, which he has consistently called “the single greatest threat facing our planet.”

Because flying generates significantly more greenhouse gases than driving, climate hawks generally advocate against taking unnecessary flights.

“The campaign purchased carbon offsets from NativeEnergy to support renewable energy projects and invest in carbon reduction projects to balance out the emissions produced on the trip,” Jones told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Carbon offsets in theory allow polluters to cancel out their emissions by funding projects aimed at reducing emissions.

The same day his campaign cut a check to the private jet company, Sanders called climate change a “planetary crisis.”

“Climate change is a planetary crisis. Our task is clear. We must take on the fossil fuel industry that’s largely responsible for global emissions and accelerate our transition toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy sources,” Sanders wrote in an Oct. 10 tweet.

Jones said the payment of $4,980 to NativeEnergy will be reflected in the campaign’s Dec. 6 filing, which covers all activities after Oct. 17.

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats in Congress, is widely expected to run for president as a Democrat in 2020.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/DonkeyHotey

5 thoughts on “Bernie Sanders, climate hawk, spends nearly $300K on private jet travel in month

  1. A private non-profit organization/corporation should be established with a legal team to bill /invoice these Gov people(Gore & Bernie) that cause CO2 emissions. They and states (VT is) are / considering taxing the populace for emissions. They won’t pay-they’re the Government. The monies (if collected) would go into a general account to help people offset the taxation (bill) from the various governments. They need to pay for what they force on others-equality. If they don’t pay, legally seize accounts / assets.

    The Constitution was created to protect people from government overreach. This is overreach. Maybe they will get the message and be accountable for their doings.

  2. Bernie studied Al Gore and saw what Gore did for saving energy. Gore has a $2K monthly electricity bill and flies all around the world then preaches all others should be conservative. Turn your heat off during winters, Global warming is here can’t you feel it? If you’re in Gov, you can do not what you tell others not to do. It gets you elected. David Kennedy is another example.

    I haven’t noted from any source that Gore , Bernie, Kennedy, et.al. paid a cent for their carbon foot print. They must produce more carbon than 5000+ people in the same time frame.

  3. Just goes to show how stupid and gullible his followers and supporters are. Every one of them buy into his raving rhetoric. What a hypocrite. Do as I say and not as I do. That’s what every one of those socialist motto’s is.

  4. Socialist Sanders states Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet,
    so let burn up $300k on a rent a Jet ……………Hypocrite, would be an understatement !!

    And people listen to this buffoons rhetoric ………………. Idiots.

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