What’s wrong with this picture? We can’t drill for offshore oil in the United States, but we can give billions of dollars to Brazil so they can build one. We haven’t built a refinery in the United States since 1976, but we can give Colombia $2.84 billion so they can build one.
CSN News reports the completely inexplicable details of the pissing away of another few billion of your tax dollars:
The U.S. Export-Import Bank, an independent agency of the federal government, is now planning a $2.84-billion loan for a massive project to expand and upgrade an oil refinery–in Cartagena, Colombia.
The money would go to Reficar, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ecopetrol, the Colombian national oil company.
“This is part of a $5.18 billion refinery and upgrade project in Cartagena, Colombia supplying petroleum products to the domestic and export markets,” the Export-Import Bank said in a statement.
The U.S. government-controlled bank says the $2.84-billion in financing it plans to undertake will be the second largest project it has ever done. The largest was $3 billion in financing for a liquid natural gas project in Papua New Guinea.
Yes, we know these are loans and loan guarantees, not outright gifts, and we understand the theory that American companies will benefit from purchases made by the foreign oil interests. But wouldn’t American companies also benefit from purchases made by companies drilling for and refining oil in the United States?
You have to give Obama credit. He may be anti-American, but at least he’s consistent.
Source: CNSnews.com
