Export-Import Bank Seemingly Loses Logic on Coal

WASHINGTON – The US Export-Import Bank aligned with the Trump administration’s executive order on coal in a unanimous board of directors vote this week. This decision reverses course on a 12-year financing policy from EXIM, indicating new interest in spending US taxpayer dollars to support the dirtiest fossil fuel, despite a lack of clarity around the target market for coal projects.

In 2002, Friends of the Earth and partners sued EXIM and Overseas Private Investment Corporation for illegally funding fossil fuels without considering climate implications under the National Environmental Policy Act. A settlement of that case led to the current policy on coal financing and global warming, which EXIM seemed to counteract in comments this week.

Kate DeAngelis, Deputy Director for International Programs at Friends of the Earth U.S., said this:

It’s hard to see the logic in the decision to pursue overseas coal investment when most nations have shifted away from depending on coal. Yet the US Export-Import Bank seems determined to sacrifice taxpayer dollars on the altar of bad ideas. Americans, like most of the world, do not want to support an outdated energy source. This decision from EXIM marks the agency and the US as out of touch with science, reality and the global market.

Contact: Shaye Skiff, [email protected]