Six lawmakers expressed opposition to potential U.S. investments in a Bahrain oil and gas project that they say would harm the climate and undermine a pledge by President Joe Biden to end public financing of overseas fossil fuel developments.
In a letter led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and sent to the board of directors of the U.S. Export-Import Bank on Wednesday, the officials urged the agency not to move forward with financing the project “because of its negative impacts on the climate.”
“The Bahrain oil and gas expansion project would be just the most recent instance of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) financing a project that runs counter to Biden Administration’s climate change policy and President Biden’s climate directive,” the letter states.
The Export-Import Bank is expected to decide Thursday whether to approve financing for the Bahrain project, in what the White House has said would be a move in opposition to Biden’s climate goals. A 2021 executive order calls on agencies, including EXIM, to find ways to stop funding fossil fuel-based energy overseas. Later that year, at global climate talks, the U.S. pledged to end new public finance for the international fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022.
