Representatives Maxine Waters (Democrat from California) and Spencer Bachus (Republican from Alabama) have introduced the 2007 Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634) in the United States House of Representatives.Oil Change International has been working with Jubilee USA on the connection between oil dependence and the debt trap, and the Jubilee Act expresses support for “the development of responsible financing standards where creditors and aid/loan recipients alike adhere to standards…, while encouraging the development of renewable energy and helping countries to transition away from dependence on oil.”

The Jubilee Act is the centerpiece of the Jubilee USA Network’s 2007 Sabbath year campaign. The Act:

1. Calls on the Bush Administration, the IMF, and the World Bank to ensure they keep their promises on debt cancellation and to challenge the activities of “vulture funds”;

2. Calls for expanded debt cancellation for all impoverished countries that will use the freed resources well and need debt cancellation to meet the Millennium Development Goals;

3. Creates new standards for responsible lending and creditor transparency by calling for measures to address the problem of vulture funds as well as debt audits of odious and illegal debts from the past.

Today, over 30 U.S. environmental, development and faith-based organizations sent a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives (Acrobat .pdf) calling on Members to support the End Oil Aid Act.“The U.S. can play a critical role in fighting our addiction to oil, alleviating global poverty and combating climate change as we move toward a clean energy future. Using taxpayer dollars to support the oil industry undermines these goals, and Congress should end this international ‘oil aid.’”

The full text of the letter is below and a copy of the letter including a list of signatories is available here (Acrobat .pdf).

__________________________________________

June 5, 2007
Re: Cosponsor H.R. 1886, the End Oil Aid Act

Dear Member of Congress:

On behalf of the thousands of members of our organizations, we urge you to cosponsor H.R. 1886, the End Oil Aid Act. This bill, introduced by Rep. Hinchey (D-NY), would limit U.S.-funded international financial institutions and export development agencies from subsidizing the oil and gas industry’s overseas operations.

Each year, financial institutions including the World Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) provide billions of dollars to the oil sector. This “oil aid” subsidizes an already-profitable industry, including companies such as ExxonMobil, Halliburton, and Chevron, which have recently reported record profits.

Moreover, these subsidies contribute to significant social and environmental problems and can undermine the core purposes of development assistance. Oil projects have been shown to increase conflict and instability, exacerbate corruption and threaten the land and livelihoods of local and indigenous communities in many developing countries. Oil aid fuels global warming, creating impacts that will disproportionately harm impoverished countries which lack the systems and infrastructure to adequately adapt to droughts, severe weather events, and agricultural disruption. In addition, soaring oil prices undercut the benefits of debt cancellation by draining far more money out of impoverished countries than cancelled debts are able to contribute. Every country can choose to develop its own resources. However, scarce foreign assistance dollars should be used to fight poverty and help developing countries pursue clean energy pathways instead of promoting oil and gas projects.

H.R. 1886 would help meet these goals. This bill would limit U.S. support for the international oil industry by prohibiting OPIC and Ex-Im from financing oil and gas projects. Since 1995, these agencies combined have provided more than $20 billion in financing to oil and gas companies. The bill would also make it U.S. policy to oppose oil and gas projects financed by multilateral development banks such as the World Bank. While the World Bank’s own panel of experts concluded in 2003 that it should phase out its support for oil, the Bank provided over $800 million in financing for fossil fuel projects in fiscal year 2006 alone.

The U.S. can play a critical role in fighting our addiction to oil, alleviating global poverty and combating climate change as we move toward a clean energy future. Using taxpayer dollars to support the oil industry undermines these goals, and Congress should end this international “oil aid.” We urge you to cosponsor H.R. 1886, the End Oil Aid Act.

The upcoming G8 Summit, which formally begins on June 6, is one of the biggest security operations in Germany’s post-war era.The German government has brought roughly 16,000 police officers and 1,100 soldiers from across the country to Heiligendamm, Germany, a small resort town on the Baltic coast where the Summit will take place. Germany also surrounded the town with a 12 kilometer long fence topped with barbed wire (see photo). The remote location and the fence are designed to keep G8 leaders in and everybody else out, even the media center is outside the wall and local demonstrations have been taking place miles away in Rostock, the nearest city to Heiligendamm. (more…)