It has been revealed that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm met privately with the leader of the group that funded a recent study used to justify calls for bans of gas-powered stoves despite the Biden administration claiming that they weren't seeking such a ban.
According to an internal agency calendar obtained by the government watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, Granholm met with the CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Jules Kortenhorst, Fox News reports.
Climate activist Kortenhorst also chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Net Zero Transition and founded the Energy Transitions Commission.
While the calendar didn’t include an agenda for the meeting, it was held over Zoom and lasted around one hour.
APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News that Granholm’s calendar pokes holes in the Biden administration’s claims that a gas stove ban was "not true."
"Despite calling stories about the Biden administration banning gas stoves 'ridiculous' and 'not true,' Secretary Granholm’s calendar tells a different story," said Sutherland. "We’ve now learned that she consulted with the dark money group pushing to ban gas stoves."
"Suffice it to say, 'ridiculous' and 'not true' proposals don’t ordinarily involve a meeting with the Secretary of Energy — and where there's smoke, there's fire," Sutherland added. "Americans everywhere must demand Granholm and green energy extremists stay out of their kitchens."
The RMI describes itself as being an "independent, non-partisan, nonprofit organization of experts across disciplines working to accelerate the clean energy transition and improve lives."
"RMI decarbonizes energy systems through rapid, market-based change in the world’s most critical geographies to align with a 1.5°C future and address the climate crisis. We work with businesses, policymakers, communities and other organizations to identify and scale energy system interventions that will cut greenhouse gas emissions at least 50% by 2030," the RMI’s website states.
RMI funded a study, which was written by RMI researchers Talor Gruenwald and Brady Seals, earlier that made headlines earlier this year, which highlighted public health dangers posed by the use of gas stoves in homes. The study linked the usage of gas stoves to childhood asthma, one of the claims used to push the ban on gas stoves.
US Consumer Product Safety Commission Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr told Bloomberg at the time that "this is a hidden hazard" and "Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned."
Days after the study went viral, US Consumer Product Safety Commission Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric issued a statement saying that while the research indicated potential hazards gas stoves pose, "I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so."
Granholm boosted the study on Twitter, writing on January 4, "We can and must FIX this. Through [President Biden's] Inflation Reduction Act, Americans will have greater access to Electric and Induction Cooktops: keeps pollution out of the home. Cooks food faster. Helps families save money."
The White House came out against a widespread gas stove ban after widespread criticism. Granholm went on to call a ban on these stoves "ridiculous."
According to Fox News, the Department of Energy reignited debate earlier this month, "proposing tight efficiency regulations that would restrict consumers' gas stove purchases in the future. Overall, the Biden administration took more than 110 actions on similar energy efficiency standards throughout 2022."
"One huge piece of this, of course, is making sure that we electrify and create efficiencies within the home environment," Granholm said in December during the White House Electrification Summit. "This is our moment to work together to deploy, deploy, deploy, and to get to that clean energy future that we all care about."
RMI has also been revealed to have collaborated with the Chinese government in studying the transition from traditional fossil fuels, with the company’s only non-US office being located in Beijing.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, RMI joined forces with China's National Development and Reform Commission, the government agency tasked with planning China’s economy, in 2013 to produce a report which advised that China replace existing appliances and generators with "clean energy technologies."
That commission implemented climate goals, and when local provinces failed to meet them in 2021, the commission pushed energy rations, resulting in "dimmed traffic lights that cause chaos" and "half-cooked rice in rice cookers."
The RMI’s board is also filled with executives from green energy corporations, including Wei Ding, founder and chairman of Chinese private equity firm Broad River Capital.
The RMI has also received funding from the Department of Energy, including a $4.4 million grant awarded in March of 2022 to demonstrate "an integrated retrofit package of envelope panels, a heat pump pod, and innovative financing" in a building in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
According to Fox News, White House climate czar Ali Zaidi "met Jules Kortenhorst, RMI's CEO at the time; John Coequyt, RMI's government affairs director; and Sarah Ladislaw, RMI's former managing director and U.S. program leader, on March 17, 2022, in the West Wing of the White House, according to visitor logs."
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