Lee, Colleagues Call for Investigation of California’s Climate Pacts with China

Lee, Colleagues Call for Investigation of California’s Climate Pacts with China August 20, 2026 WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) joined Senators Rick Scott (R-FL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Congresswoman Young Kim (R-CA-39) to call for an investigation into the state of California’s numerous climate agreements with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The members of Congress penned a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Todd Blanche outlining California’s inappropriate climate agreements with China. “If Governor Newsom would like to assume foreign affairs authorities constitutionally vested in the federal government, that option, however quixotic, ill-conceived, and downright laughable, is theoretically available to him. As it stands, however, he is likely violating the Constitution, serving as China’s useful pawn while destroying the pocketbooks of millions of hardworking Americans,” wrote the members of Congress. Background The Compact Clause of the Constitution gives the federal government authority over foreign affairs, and the Supreme Court has upheld that even state action with a mere "direct impact upon foreign relations"[1]may be unconstitutional. Despite this, California has an extensive history of circumventing Congressional approval and entering into agreements with CCP conduits, including: California China Climate Institute Founded in 2019 by Governor Jerry Brown and the CCP’s longtime global climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, the goal was to shape U.S. and subnational climate policy and advance the goals of the Paris Agreement. The California China Climate Institute was codified into law by Governor Newsom. China-U.S. ZEV Policy Lab Agreed upon by the University of California-Davis and the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, the China-U.S. ZEV Policy Lab committed both sides to speed the commercialization of electric cars. Read the full letter here . ###