January 15, 2014
Washington, D.C. — Polluter-funded politicians are attempting to use Omnibus Appropriations legislation to increase taxpayer support for building coal plants overseas. This would undermine President Obama’s new climate policy, which stops many of these dirty subsidies through U.S. development and trade finance agencies — the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank. Nine national environmental organizations issued the following statement in response to climate denier language in the legislation, which is expected to be voted on later this week:
This assault by House and Senate Appropriations Committee negotiators on the enforcement of landmark climate policies to protect the environment and public health is a joke. This poorly written language has all the policy sophistication of a rusty chainsaw, and represents a symbolic snub by Congressional leadership to the Obama administration’s forward movement on coal restrictions through the president’s Climate Action Plan. This shady backroom deal, done under the leadership of Representative Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), demonstrates that the purse strings of too many in Congress continue to be pulled by the fossil fuel industry. While they look backwards to the fossil age, we – along with OPIC and Ex-Im Bank – will continue to move boldly forward to protect people and the planet as we face a global climate crisis.
The following organizations signed this statement: Center for Biological Diversity | Center for International Environmental Law | Earth Day Network | Friends of the Earth U.S. | Greenpeace | Institute for Policy Studies, Climate Policy Program | International Rivers | Oil Change International | Pacific Environment