Export-Import Bank faces rising pressure to end fossil fuel loans

By Sara Schonhardt | 10/03/2024 06:20 AM EDT

The bank has defied the White House by financing oil and gas projects.

A man walks out of the Export-Import Bank of the United States in Washington.

The Export-Import Bank's support of oil and gas projects abroad runs counter to a pledge made by President Joe Biden. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Green groups are stepping up pressure on the Export-Import Bank to abandon its financial support of fossil fuel projects overseas.

The pressure comes about a month before the election, leaving the Biden administration little time to meet the president’s goal to stop using taxpayer money to fund oil, gas and coal projects internationally, according to climate advocates.

The bank, which funds projects overseas to support American exports, is considering investments in fossil fuel infrastructure that could emit around 5 billion tons of planet-warming pollution over their existence, according to an analysis by Friends of the Earth and Oil Change International, two environmental advocacy groups who shared the report exclusively with POLITICO’s E&E News.

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Those emissions are roughly equivalent to 80 percent of annual U.S. emissions, the report says.

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