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The Overseas
Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) uses taxpayer dollars to support
corporations operating in developing countries. By financing large
projects and insuring negligent companies against political risk,
OPIC often harms valuable ecosystems and impacts local populations.
When OPIC made the landmark 1995 decision to end its support of
Freeport McMoRan's destructive mining operation in Indonesia, a
laundry list of environmentally-damaging projects backed by US taxpayers
was uncovered. While OPIC's
Environmental Handbook requires the agency to support only projects
with sound environmental standards—and while the agency is
prohibited from financing extractive projects in primary tropical
forests—OPIC recently approved funding for a gas pipeline from
Bolivia to Brazil. This pipeline will harm valuable tropical dry
forest and wetland ecosystems. Friends of the
Earth is working to ensure OPIC doesn't waste valuable financial
resources on destructive projects like the Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline,
by urging the agency to adhere to its own environmental guidelines—which
include restrictions against funding projects in primary tropical
forests, large dams that disrupt natural ecosystems, and projects
that require resettlement of 5,000 or more people. Friends of the
Earth also works to ensure that OPIC is accountable and open to
the public, by monitoring its compliance with guidelines for releasing
Environmental Impact Assessments, independent project audits, and
greenhouse gas emissions reports for thermal power plants. For a complete
list of OPIC's environmental policies, visit their homepage at:
http://www.opic.gov
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