Billionaires descend on Sun Valley in private jets to talk about climate change
The private conference was canceled last year because of the pandemic
Gates' Sun Valley seminar on climate issues raises eyebrows with attendees' private jet fleet: Sources
Sources tell FOX Business' Charlie Gasparino that Sun Valley residents are complaining that corp jets owned by moguls disrupted other flights.
A cabal of some of the most high-profile people in media, finance and technology descended on Idaho’s resort town of Sun Valley in private jets this week to tackle, among other things, climate change.
On Tuesday, the day the conference kicked off, traffic from private jets got to be so busy that the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily banned planes on the West Coast from taking off.
A Gulfstream G650 owned by Jeff Bezos' Poplar Glen LLC arrives at Hailey's Friedman Memorial Airport for the Allen and Co. Sun Valley media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S. July 6, 2021. (REUTERS/Brian Losness)
The FAA told Fox News it briefly held planes on the ground at their departure airports to avoid congestion in the airspace around Sun Valley.
The manager of the Friedman Memorial Airport in the neighboring town of Hailey, Idaho, told NPR ahead of the conference that he expected more than 90 private planes.
A session preaching the perils of climate change to people who flew to the event on their own carbon-emitting Gulfstream jets rankled some business leaders that FOX Business contacted earlier in the week.
"Talking climate change on his private jet?" one CEO remarked with a laugh, referring to Gates.
One Twitter used pointed out the "Climate Hypocrisy."
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The private conference, hosted by the private investment bank Allen & Company, has been held in July every year since 1983, with the exception of last year due to the pandemic.
Neurologist Dr. Frank Petito rides to a morning session at the Sun Valley Conference on July 08, 2021 in Sun Valley, Idaho. (Getty Images)
The event is largely a summer camp for some of the world’s billionaires. Notable attendees this year included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose public image has taken a hit in recent months over his divorce announcement and reported ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
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The event concluded on Saturday, with a closing speech by billionaire Warren Buffett.
FOX Business' Charles Gasparino and Eleanor Terrett contributed to this report.