Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Rush reports to the district on his efforts to expand global energy and trade relations between the United States and the Gulf of Guinea

CHICAGO –– In a speech in Houston on Monday, U. S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-IL) called on the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Executive Directors of the World Bank and the African Development Bank to support the establishment of Clean Energy Research Centers and Clean Energy Equipment Financing Facilities for the Gulf of Guinea.

Rush, along with other Members of Congress who represent Houston, U. S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and U. S. Rep. Al Green, jointly expressed their support for clean energy technology research and equipment exports during a congressional briefing held at the Greater Houston Partnership in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson Center on the subject “The Impact of U.S. Energy Policy on Trade with the Gulf of Guinea.”

Houston and Chicago were recently selected as two of four American cities to participate in the World Bank Group’s Public Sector Liaison Officer Network, an organization comprised of 100 business intermediary organizations, in 80 countries, working to foster trade and investment between participating countries with the support of the World Bank Group’s products and services.

The World Bank estimates that over 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas are flared or vented annually, an amount worth approximately $30.6 billion. This volume is an amount that is equivalent to 25 percent of the United States’ gas consumption or 30 percent of the European Union’s gas consumption per year. This flaring is highly concentrated in 10 countries that, together, account for 75 percent of global emissions, with the largest flaring operations occurring in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

The U.S. currently imports approximately 15 percent of its oil and gas supplies from West African countries along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. This level is expected to increase to 25% to 30% by 2020. The U.S. is also the largest importer of oil and gas from this region.
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While the U.S. pursues an energy policy that seeks to decrease its dependence on foreign oil and decrease its contribution to global warming, it is essential that the U.S. provide support to these key strategic partners to help reduce carbon emissions and gas flaring associated with meeting our market needs while alternative sources of energy are scaled up.

The proposal seeks to replicate a $37 million Department of Energy grant to China for research centers that was matched by the grantees, resulting in $75 million in total U.S. research. Under the proposed U.S.–Gulf of Guinea Clean Energy Research Center project, the U.S. Department of Energy will provide grants to regional universities and technology centers, with matching funds from the grantee or the host country, and the African Development Bank. The research will focus on advancing technologies for building energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage, and clean energy/anti-flaring/pollution control, biomass and other alternative energy solutions.

The Members of Congress who participated in the forum have encouraged the Obama Administration to include this initiative in the U.S.-Nigeria as well as in the U.S.-Angola Bi-National Commission discussions.

Congressman Rush joined Chris Wilmot, Chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership’s World Bank Task Force, in calling on Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, to establish financing facilities for clean energy projects in the Gulf of Guinea that can be complimented with financing from OPIC, EXIM and the African Development Bank. These recommendations also encourage these financial institutions which receive U.S. government funding to include minority firms.

Congressman Rush also expressed his support for the establishment of the Gulf of Guinea Energy Fund. The emergence of this fund was in response to new, local content laws in the region and recommendations outlined in a 2005 Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Report that called for the establishment of new financing facilities and joint ventures between major oil companies and indigenous companies with a particular emphasis on including U.S., minority-owned firms.

The briefing was held on the first day of the Offshore Technology Conference, an event designed to engage leading government and industry representatives from Africa as well as senior executives from U.S. oil companies to help develop legislation supporting U.S. trade and energy policy toward the Gulf of Guinea region in West Africa.


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