Washington, DC – Today, the House Appropriations Committee passed a provision requested by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Steve Israel (D-NY) that will require the Export-Import Bank to increase investment in renewable energy and other environmentally beneficial products. The provision, included in the House Fiscal Year 2008 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, will require that at least 10 percent of the Export-Import Bank’s (EX-IM) investments in energy projects are allocated for renewable energy projects.
“Committing ourselves to promoting and investing in renewable fuel technology is imperative,” said Congressman Schiff. “Climate change and environmental degradation is a global problem and we need to work with the international community to confront it head-on.”
“Today, we passed language that could quadruple the amount of advanced energy we export through this program,” explained Congressman Israel, who also sits on the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. “We’re currently lagging behind other countries in our production of renewable energy technologies. Increasing our renewable energy exports creates jobs at home while improving our energy security.”
EX-IM established an Environmental Exports Program in 1994 and has financed a number of “green” projects. Recently, EX-IM provided a loan guarantee for a $5.2 million sale of 55 air quality monitoring machines to China. However, despite the growing demand worldwide for clean energy, fossil fuel projects still receive the vast majority of EX-IM’s support in the energy sector. The Israel-Schiff provision could result in an estimated $1 billion in additional green exports in 2008.
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