When Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred P. Hochberg defended his agency for helping the Brazilian oil company Petrobras secure U.S. taxpayer-backed loans to develop its offshore oil reserves, he failed to mention why the Obama administration (which he serves as a political appointee) is helping foreign governments develop their energy resources while opposing similar oil developments at home (“Ex-Im Bank is doing its job,” Letter of the Day, Wednesday).
Perhaps the reason why the Ex-Im Bank must loan money for energy development in foreign countries is that the administration has quietly been shelving almost all domestic energy leases, including offshore waters, oil shale and leases in Utah. At the end of this fiscal year, the Interior Department will be lucky if it collects 10 percent of the more than $10 billion it did from sales of leases in fiscal 2008.
Helping foreign countries develop their energy while assaulting our energy production here at home is not a policy that will yield the administration’s stated goal of reducing foreign oil imports.
DANIEL V. KISH
Senior vice president, Policy
Institute for Energy Research
Washington
'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
By Tom Howell Jr. - The Washington Times
House Republicans who are critical of the federal health care law have written to more than a dozen companies, including top insurers Aetna and BlueCross BlueShield, to ask if President Obama’s top health official tried to solicit funds from them to support the overhaul.
