EXIM: The Fox Is Watching the Henhouse: Green Energy Edition

(National Review, Washington, 9 March 2021) Veronique de Rugy of the conservative leaning National Review notes that “asking Ex-Im officials to identify steps through which the United States can promote ending international financing of carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.” She adds: “Indeed, Ex-Im itself has long been, and continues to be, knee-deep in the business of extending financing in the international and domestic oil and gas sector… Some $12 billion of this exposure – 26% of the bank’s portfolio – subsidizes the oil and gas industry…For example the Mexican state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, which has been hammered for years by mismanagement, underinvestment and low oil prices. For at least 15 years until 2017, the bank [EXIM] had more loans outstanding to Pemex than to any other borrower…”  Continuing she wonders: “let’s see if they make progress during multilateral negotiations with other export-credit agencies to agree to end their subsidies together. I won’t hold my breath, of course, since Ex-Im and other export-credit agencies around the world are enslaved to the special interests they support and they will drag their feet as long as they can. In the end, I predict that all we are likely to get from this [Biden Executive Order] is bad climate policies such as subsidies to well-connected green companies (see the 1705 loan program) and measures to destroy the domestic oil and gas industries while Ex-Im will continue to subsidize corrupt PEMEX.”