ECA Watch: International NGO Campaign on Export Credit Agencies

September 12, 2002
---------------------------------------------------------------
"What's New!" is a bi-weekly email update to keep you informed of the latest uploads onto the website which features a wide range of materials submitted by over 50 NGOs actively participating in the coalition. If you would like to be added onto the recipients list for "What's New!", join ECA-Action, the mailing list that disseminates latest articles, commentaries and announcements around policies and practices of ECAs and ECA-supported projects around the world. To join, simply sign up from the website, www.eca-watch.org today!
Questions? Email info@eca-watch.org
---------------------------------------------------------------
Items

- 10 Joint Letter to OPIC on Sakhalin II, and Memo: Broken Commitments: Sakhalin II and Ongoing Environmental, Social and Economic Problems

1. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the city of Boulder, Colorado, filed a suit on behalf of "members and citizens who are victims of global warming" against the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, both US ECAs." The plaintiffs' statement reads: "over $32 billion in financing and insurance for oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants over the past 10 years without assessing their contribution to global warming and their impact on the U.S. environment." Check out www.climatelawsuit.org for more information!

3. Mayor of City of Boulder, Colorado, USA, responds to Daily editorial
Colorado Daily, August 26, 2002 - "The City of Boulder has recently adopted the Kyoto protocol emissions goals, and is developing an action plan to meet these targets. But we can't do it alone. As long as the government of
the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter refuses to address this issue, it cannot be solved. If this lawsuit helps to prod the Bush administration to do something about global climate change, it will be well worth it."

December 10, 2001
"The threat of impacts from a potential catastrophic oil spill associated with drilling and transport of oil, and of "normal" chronic daily discharges from the operation, are an unacceptably high risk to this environment and economy. The fact that Sakhalin II is in an area of very high seismic activity increases these risks still further."

11. Russian Roulette
SF Weekly : April 25, 2001
By John Dougherty
"The Western Pacific gray whale, once thought extinct, clings to life in a remote Siberian sea. Biologists fear their research is serving as cover for massive oil drilling that could wipe out this lost tribe once and for all."

12. Muddied Waters: A Survey of Offshore Oilfield Drilling Wastes and Disposal Techniques to Reduce the Ecological Impact of Sea Dumping
May 25, 2002
By Jonathan Willis, for Sakhalin Environment Watch

13. Time to improve Sakhalin oil spill prevention and response measures
Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections, February 21, 2000
By David Gordon
"Given the economic and environmental value of the Sea of Okhotsk, it is not surprising that many in Russia and Japan are concerned about pollution. Yet government authorities, international companies and public financial institutions have focused on speeding ahead with efforts to develop Sakhalin Island's oil and gas fields, while little attention has been paid to improving the island's capacity to prevent and respond to oil spills."

14. Sakhalin's Oil: Doing It Right - Applying Global Standards to Public Participation, Environmental Monitoring, Oil Spill Prevention & Response and Liability Standards in the Sakhalin Oblast of the Russian Federation
November 1999
By Dan Lawn, Rick Steiner & Jonathan Wills
In order to prevent a catastrophe such as the "Exxon Valdez" on Sakhalin Island, NGOs invited a team of independent experts to Sakhalin Island in order to review the island's spill prevention and response measures.

15. Blair's summit rebuff to Bush
The Guardian, September 2, 2002 - Blair "also provided an incentive to British exporters of such technology by announcing £50m a year in export credit guarantees earmarked for renewables."

Enron: Press > ECAs in the Press

16. Enron's Pipeline Pain
La Paz : August, 2002
By Jimmy Langman
"At issue is the role of U.S. government agency Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC), which doled out US$3 billion to support Enron’s international projects during the 1990s."

17. Enron congressional hearings may force US agencies to "step up"
Institute for Policy Studies : August 01, 2002
By Jim Vallette
WASHINGTON : "Senators today continued to grill private financial institutions over their roles in Enron's rise and fall. The investigation could soon spill from the private to the public sector, where U.S. taxpayer-financed institutions continue to engage in a dangerous tango with Enron's overseas ambitions. These public financial institutions have doled out over $7 billion towards Enron-related projects since 1992."

18. Enron May Have Used Pipelines To Improperly Secure Late Loans
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL : August 02, 2002
By JOHN R. WILKE, REBECCA SMITH and JATHON SAPSFORDWASHINGTON -- "Just weeks before its bankruptcy, Enron Corp. may have improperly used two pipeline subsidiaries to secure a $1 billion loan from its bankers, federal regulators found in an audit of the fallen energy company."

19. A Guardian of Jobs or a 'Reverse Robin Hood'
New York Times : September 3, 2002
By LESLIE WAYNE
"At a time when the Bush administration says it wants to cut back on corporate welfare, the Export-Import bank, often called a "reverse Robin Hood" for taking money from American taxpayers and giving it to wealthy corporations, is growing. In June, while the public was focused on corporate scandals, President Bush quietly signed legislation to double the scope of the bank's operations and allow it to provide up to $100 billion in international trade assistance at any one time."

What's New! Vol. I, No. 5