Cruz Alleges Alliance Between China, U.S. Climate Groups Undermines American Energy
Senators clash over China’s ties with U.S. energy groups.
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2025 – At a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing today, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned that U.S. energy production is under attack by an illicit alliance between the Chinese Communist Party and progressive climate advocacy groups, lawyers, and nonprofit organizations in the U.S.
Cruz at the hearing titled Enter the Dragon—China and the Left’s Lawfare Against American Energy Dominance, stated that the Chinese Communist Party was crippling the nation’s energy independence through waves of litigation.
“We're witnessing right now a systematic campaign against American energy,” Cruz said. “There is a coordinated assault by the radical left, backed and paid for by the Chinese Communist Party to seize control of our courts and weaponize litigation against our energy producers.’’
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Cruz referenced Energy Foundation China – a U.S.-based non-profit organization that focuses on climate change and China. Cruz accused the organization of funneling $12 million since 2020 to U.S.-based climate advocacy groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Rocky Mountain Institute, and the World Resources Institute organizations.
Cruz pointed out that the organization’s CEO and President Ji Zou previously served as a member of China's official climate negotiation team during the 2015 Paris Agreement. A treaty, Cruz argued, allowed China to increase its emissions until 2030 while forcing the U.S. to needlessly cut back.
Cruz stated this alliance between China and U.S. advocacy groups poses a grave threat to American energy production.
“Our energy sector is the engine of American prosperity, the lifeblood of our industrial power, our national security, and our geopolitical leverage,” he stated. “If American energy is under attack, so is American security and American independence.”
Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center and one of the three witnesses at the hearing, affirmed Cruz’s accusations against China and U.S. advocacy groups, stating the transactions between the groups are evident in IRS filings.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., dismissed Cruz’s accusation as a baseless conspiracy theory. Whitehouse stated that the real threat to the U.S.'s rising energy costs and climate issues was the fossil fuel industry.
“The hearing ignores that the fossil fuel industry has for decades benefited from secret funding to wage war on the American consumer by making energy more expensive and dirtier, higher utility bills worse pollution,” Whitehouse said.
Though the hearing shifted to debates regarding climate change, Cruz maintained that Chinese influence over U.S. climate groups is the cause of lawsuits threatening American energy independence.
