Congress Daily

Wed. June 25, 2008

HILL BRIEFS

Bush-Backed Energy Fund Stalled By Frank, Pelosi

Citing concerns by House Speaker Pelosi that an international Clean Technology Fund backed by the Bush administration might be used to build coal-burning power plants, House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank postponed a markup on the bill Tuesday.

The administration’s proposal to contribute $2 billion over three years to the fund, which would be managed by the World Bank to help developing countries adopt cleaner forms of energy, had been approved by the Financial Services Monetary Policy Subcommittee despite strong opposition from environmental activists and some panel members.

Environmentalists say the World Bank has a history of supporting so-called “clean” technology for coal-fired plants that are a big source of global warming emissions.

Frank removed the bill from the full committee’s agenda Tuesday, saying that Pelosi wants to first have discussions about it with Treasury Secretary Paulson.

On July 1st, the World Bank approved the Climate Investment Funds and claims that donor countries have committed $4-5 Billion.

But US contributions are far from assured, and will not be appropriated until Spring 2009, at the earliest, making us suspect that the approval was rushed through in order to be able to present this during the upcoming G8 Summit.

See Reuters article:

world-bank-approves-climate-funds-before-g8-summit-tue-jul-1.doc