Biden Clean Energy Czar’s Brother Lobbies for Chinese Co. Vying for EV Battery Material Market

The lobbyist brother of President Biden’s clean energy czar is getting paid to lobby the United States government on behalf of Chinese Communist interests seeking to corner the market on vital raw materials to produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries, which the administration continues to invest heavily in. The arrangement seems to violate a 2021 Biden order to “restore ethics in government” by banning members of his administration from using public service for private gain. At the very least it creates a conflict of interest within the administration’s $370 billion clean energy investments, which are being disbursed by Democratic political operative John Podesta, who served in the Clinton and Obama White House and currently holds the title of Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation. Judicial Watch reported on the special appointment last fall, offering an extensive history of Podesta’s dirty dealings in presidential politics.

It cannot be a coincidence that his lobbyist brother’s (Tony Podesta) newest client is a company with a flagship project that includes a massive copper and nickel mine in Nunavik, Quebec. Lobbying disclosures obtained by Judicial Watch show that Tony Podesta received $40,000 from the company, Canadian Royalties (CRI), in the fourth quarter of 2023 to lobby the Department of Defense and Department of Education on “issues related to the development of nickel and other critical minerals for the U.S.” Nickel is a crucial element in the production of EV batteries and, besides allocating billions for batteries, the Biden administration has also invested enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars to promote EV ownership and reliable charging networks. On top of offering generous tax credits for EV buyers, the administration has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars to increase the reliability and resilience of publicly accessible chargers, advance EV technologies, and support workforce development for charging deployment and maintenance.

CRI is owned by a Chinese company called Jilin Jien Nickel Industry, records obtained by Judicial Watch show. The Communist government’s acquisition of the business in 2009 was “China’s first attempt at a hostile takeover of a Canadian company,” according to a report in Canada’s largest newspaper, which also reveals the “hostile bid was a test case that attempted to gauge the public and political reaction to an unsolicited bid for Canadian resource assets by a Chinese company.” CRI is currently the largest Chinese owned mining interest in Canada and its CEO and Director is James Xiang, a Chinese-Canadian investor and mining executive. His professional biography says he “has raised over $2 billion for Chinese companies from private equity investors and via international listings in the last two decades.” He also leads China Mineral Resources, an organization that since 2009 has invested more than $1 billion in global Canadian companies with Chinese and other shareholders. Xiang has executive affiliations with several other Chinese-owned mining and exploration companies and is Board Chair for Northern Sun Mining, which is majority-owned by Jilin Jien. He was the CEO of North American Lithium, which was also majority-owned by Jien International Investment prior to its acquisition by CATL, the Chinese EV battery company recently banned from use in DOD equipment due to security concerns.

It is unscrupulous that the lobbyist brother of a top White House official is on the payroll of a Chinese company that stands to benefit financially from the multi-billion-dollar clean energy program run by his sibling. The arrangement is nothing new for the Podesta brothers, long considered a “power duo” in Washington D.C. In a story comparing the Podestas to another influential team of D.C. brothers—Steve and Jeff Ricchetti—where one served as Biden White House Counsel and the other a highly successful lobbyist, a mainstream newspaper writes: “Not since the heyday of John and Tony Podesta, who served in the Obama White House and dominated K Street, respectively, have siblings wielded so much public and private power in Washington. While John Podesta held a series of high-ranking positions in the Clinton and Obama White Houses, Tony Podesta built one of the largest influence-peddling operations in the capital city. He minted money, party-hopped around town in red leather shoes and amassed a museum-quality collection of artworks valued in the tens of millions of dollars.”

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