Steve Peacock's U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor

Obama to Help Thriving 'Fracking' Industry Set Up Shop in China

Providers of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” equipment and services are eyeing the Chinese market to expand their offerings—and the Obama Administration initially will cough up $378,000 so the industry can travel to China to further examine such potential opportunities.

The U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA), an independent White House agency, is providing the grant for what it calls the U.S.-China Shale Gas Training Program, which will “help introduce Chinese energy sector officials and project sponsors to U.S. shale gas best practices, policies and technologies.”

USTDA last month had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) for this program, according to a solicitation that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research. The initiative’s Statement of Work (SOW) says:

This project was requested during the 2012 U.S.-China Oil and Gas Forum and supports the U.S. China Shale Gas Resource Initiative led by the U.S. State Department, as well as the work associated with the U.S.-China Oil and Gas Forum led by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The endeavor will center on the provision four two-day technical workshops that a USTDA contractor will hold in China over a twenty month period. The agency anticipates hosting 50-75 Chinese participants hand-picked by the China NEA “in cooperation with USTDA.”

These participants largely will “come from Chinese government entities and the Chinese firms that have been awarded blocs for shale gas…” the SOW says.

The program’s stated goal is to “optimize the potential for U.S. exports, pointing out that “In less than a generation, the United States has soared to world leadership in extracting natural gas from shale formations through hydraulic fracturing.”

U.S. companies, it continues:

view the current development of shale gas in China as an opportune time to engage this largely untapped market. The Chinese government and its oil and gas companies are also looking to the United States for guidance as they recognize many hurdles exist before the shale gas industry can reach full commercialization.

Considering that U.S. companies already hold that position of world leadership in that industry segment, the document left unclear why U.S. taxpayers will fund its further expansion.

USTDA already is setting its sights on funneling even more cash from the U.S Treasury to this successful industry sector, which is led by multinational corporations such as Halliburton Corp. and Schlumberger Ltd.

Indeed, the SOW makes clear that this Chinese “training program,” as the agency calls it, “is also expected to be an effective business development tool” for an upcoming USTDA-funded feasibility study as well as other “technical assistance activities in the shale gas sector.”

Source document: Solicitation #RFP-CO201361047.

FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE U.S TRADE & DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, VISIT THE MONITOR'S USTDA PAGE.

FOR ADDITIONAL REGIONAL COVERAGE, VISIT THE MONITOR'S CHINA PAGE.

ALSO SEE THE MONITOR'S ENERGY PAGE.

Hurricane Sandy: Another Example of Why We Need to Invest More in America, Less Around the Globe (COMMENTARY)

I have an idea how we as a nation can better cope with the financial burden that nature has imposed upon us in this post-hurricane environment of devastation on the East Coast: Assess and then cancel various programs that U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Trade & Development Agency currently are carrying out or are planning to implement across the globe.

For the sake of full disclosure, I say this not only as a concerned taxpayer who continues to advocate streamlining (not the elimination) of foreign aid, but as a human being who lives one mile from the beach on the battered New Jersey coast -- someone who is doing significantly better than many of his Shore neighbors, but who is temporarily displaced nonetheless.

Before I continue, also keep in mind that this is less political -- insofar as partisan politics -- than it appears. Yes, the Obama Administration currently is executing the following initiatives. But as I've said before, it's a power thing, not an Obama thing. Such endeavors took place under Clinton and Bush, and in various forms will continue under future presidents.

Here we go:

Cancel the planned development of Ph.D. and masters degree programs for which USAID intends to fund in a Ugandan university. Use that money in schools across New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut. 

Cancel the nearly $1 billion in construction projects that USAID has planned for the Palestinians.  Use it to rebuild homes, businesses, and infrastucture destroyed during the hurricane. OUR hurricane.

Those business start-up projects in The Philippines? Cancel them. Most of the businesses in my area are closed, hopefully just temporarily. many, presumbaly, will go under. Tell the Filipinos they have to wait. 

The groundwater cleanup projects in for which USTDA paid the cost of U.S. industry reps to fly to China to boost that sector? Stop such subsidies, damnit. I'm guessing the groundwater between Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant (among other locations) could use some ameliorating. 

The list is seemningly endless. There are bigger and even more controversial projects, I am sure, the billions is no so-called "drug war" contracts among one of the more insane categories.

Oh, okay, just one more example (out of many). I know it amounts to peanuts, but the $322,000 that Department of State just spent on a 10-animal dog kennel in Iraq could have been used to rebuild damaged animal -- and human -- shelters here on the East Coast instead. Just sayin.' -- Steve Peacock

U.S to Demilitarize & Dispose Depleted Uranium Ammo for Taiwan

The cost of removing and destroying of depleted-uranium ammunition in Taiwan may be borne by American taxpayers, as the U.S. Army is looking for industry sources capable of performing that service on behalf of the Taiwanese government.

The Demilitarization and Disposal of 20mm and 105mm Depleted Uranium Ammunition in Taiwan Project at this stage only seeks to identify “potential sources possessing the capabilities, experience, and expertise necessary” for the endeavor.

If indeed the Army fully pursues this, the selected contractor will “go to Taiwan and either perform the demilitarization service for Taiwan or instruct them in how to do it.”

The Sources Sought Notice (Solicitation # W52P1JDUDEMIL), which U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located through routine database research, defines demilitarization, or DEMIL, as the act of:

(1) disassembling chemical or conventional military munitions for the purpose of recycling, reclamation, or reuse of subcomponents; or (2) rendering chemical or conventional military munitions innocuous or ineffectual for military use (i.e., removing the military offensive or defensive characteristics), which may include disposal of unusable components of the munitions.

If further added that DEMIL “encompasses various approved methods such as mutilation, alteration, or destruction to prevent further use for its originally intended military purpose.”

The Taiwan government needs to DEMIL and dispose of 4,000 20mm depleted uranium shells and 150 105mm depleted uranium shells, the notice said.

U.S. Getting Closer to Funding China Enviro Clean-Ups, Brazil Airport and Ukraine '9-1-1' Upgrades

The U.S. government yesterday took the next step towards partly financing environmental cleanup projects in China. As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor previously reported, the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) last month issued a Scope of Work related to a series of groundwater remediation initiatives in China—projects for which that nation intend to infuse (USD) $5.5 billion of its own money through 2020 (Monitor, March 16).

Nonetheless, USTDA awarded a $44,000 contract to Ascendant Program Services, LLC, a Bethesda, Md.-based infrastructure consulting firm, to embark upon a "definitional mission," or DM, to China. (Contract award #USTDA-CO201261140).

Despite the seemingly inconsequential price tag of the DM, it is one of several potential exploratory missions for which USTDA might fund—standard steps that the agency typically takes, such as the crafting of next-step “feasibility studies”—before arranging much larger financing of the actual remediation projects.

Ascendant now will travel to Beijing and two other cities that the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has identified as "priority locations for groundwater and soil remediation projects."

The contract is one of a trio that the company secured from USTDA since last year. The agency awarded Ascendant a $35,000 contract, for example, to perform a feasibility study of an emergency call center project for the Government of Ukraine. 

Likewise, in 2011 it separately awarded it a $50,000 contract to carry out a definitional mission to Brazil, where it was to evaluate possible USTDA funding of airport modernization projects.

As a follow-up measure to that Ascendant mission, the agency last week agreed to give a $485,000 “technical assistance” grant to the Rio de Janeiro State Transport Secretariat toward such airport projects. The Secretariat will not use the money for actual modernization of transportation infrastructure; rather, the funds will help the Rio state authority to “update its statewide airport plan and develop a funding strategy to modernize and expand the state's airport and heliport networks,” USTDA announced.

There is an “urgent need” to fund the project, USTDA justified, as Brazil is experiencing “rapidly increasing air traffic” while also preparing for an influx of visitors due to the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Games.

FOR ADDITIONAL REPORTING ON THE U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, SEE THE MONITOR'S USAID PAGE.

FOR FURTHER TOPICAL COVERAGE, SEE THE MONITOR'S ENVIRONMENTAL PAGE.

FOR ADDITIONAL REGIONAL COVERAGE, SEE THE MONITOR'S CHINA PAGE,  BRAZIL PAGE, AND UKRAINE PAGE.

U.S. to Channel Cash Toward China Groundwater-Cleanup Projects

The U.S. government is embarking upon, and partly financing, a series of groundwater remediation initiatives in China -- despite the fact that China already plans to pump (USD) $5.5 billion of its own money into such actions through 2020.

According to a Scope of Work (SOW) that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has located, the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) initially will fund what is known as a "definitional mission," or DM, to China  (#RFQ-CO201261140). The agency will outsource this preliminary endeavor to a private contractor, who would then travel to Beijing and two other cities that the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has identified as "priority locations for groundwater and soil remediation projects," the SOW says.

The document points out that the China MEP requested U.S. assistance because it "recognized U.S. experience and technology leadership in this sector." It also attempts to justify this transfer of funds from the U.S. Treasury to U.S. contractors on the grounds that:

While U.S. companies are among the leaders in these technologies, significant competition exists from Canadian, European and Japanese firms, most of which are focusing their efforts on the Chinese market.

Following the DM, the selected contractor will provide a Final Report to USTDA assessing and justifying whether the agency should fund subsequent groundwater- and soil remediation-related Feasibility Studies or Technical Assistance packages.

Programs identified for additional funding would enable USTDA to "build on success of the 2010 USTDA-funded U.S. China water Quality Cooperation Program that provided 12 workshops and seminars for China's environmental leaders on multiple water quality topics."

A search of the FedBizOpps contracting database shows that the agency in 2009 awarded a $450,000 contract (Award #CO-2009310004) to Scranton Gillette Communications, Inc.. of Arlington Heights, IL, to conduct those workshops and seminars.

FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE U.S TRADE & DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, VISIT THE MONITOR'S USTDA PAGE. 

FOR ADDITIONAL REGIONAL COVERAGE, SEE THE MONITOR'S CHINA PAGE AND ASIA PAGE.

U.S. Seeks New Means of Predicting Internet Growth Overseas, from Albania to Zimbabwe

The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is looking for a contractor capable of developing a new analytical model to predict Internet usage and growth in thirty-two foreign nations, from "A" (Albania) to "Z" (Zimbabwe).

The agency, which runs U.S. government-funded international broadcasting systems such as Voice of America and Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, said in a Statement of Work (Solicitation #BBG50-R-11-0020) that existing models for predicting growth are inadequate. The SOW said those models solely focus on specific technology sectors rather than the Internet in its entirety:

The ultimate goal is to estimate, using empirical data, the expansion of the number of unique individuals using the Internet on a weekly basis in these markets over the next five years. While various organizations have produced such estimates and prejections for sub-segments of the Internet market, such as mobile Internet use or fixed line broadband, BBG requires estimates of the growth of the entire Internet market, regardless of platform, including use via public access facilities.

Although the BBG attempted to justifiy why it wants a new predictive model, it did not specify why it needs -- nor what it intends to do -- with such a new mode of analysis. The agency said it would apply the model to Internet usage in the following nations: Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam,  Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The BBG said the selected contractor should be able to complete the work within an eight-week period. It did not offer an estimated cost of the project.

USAID Dumping $50 Million into Central Asia Trade & Reform Project

$50 million in contracts recently were awarded to four vendors under an initiative that seeks to promote economic growth in Central Asia, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) revealed today. Contracting documents indicate that the program will benefit "failed states" that have poor banking and other economic policies and institutions: 

"A wealthier, healthier and more stable Central Asia will be characterized by increasing trade and investment between countries among which economic interests are aligned. It will also be characterized by the establishment of mutually beneficial commercial ties with neighboring countries such as Russia and China."

The $50 million figure encompasses an estimated ceiling for the Macroeconomic Foundations for Growth program (Solicitation #SOL-176-11-00000-2), for which the agency awarded indefinite quantity contracts, or IQCs, to Chemonics International, Inc., Deloitte Consulting, LLP, Pragma Corporation, and AECOM International Development. The vendors each will receive an unspecified number of  "task orders" over five years, during which time they could execute a variety of potential initiatives in the nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Chemonics, Deloitte, Pragma, and AECOM will provide training, research, and technical and advisory services that USAID hopes "will improve the macro environment for business enterprise formation and growth, trade, and domestic and foreign investment" in Central Asia.  The project will seek to accomplish those goals through:

1) Legal and institutional reform;

2) Financial sector reform and expansion;

3) Economic policy and institutions development;

4) Trade and investment, and:

5) Addressing exogenous shocks, assistance to ease the adjustment to exogenous economic and financial shocks that cause short and medium-term development problems affecting the national business environment and potential to generate economic growth.

6) Stabilization – Crisis Assistance Projects.

Although USAID technically awarded the contracts on July 1, the agency did not announce them via the Federal Business Opportunities database until July 11.

USDA to Train Chefs from China's Upscale Hotels

Chefs from five-star hotels across China soon will descend upon the U.S. to learn more about western-style menus, management and products—and U.S. taxpayers will be footing most of the bill.

According to a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) Statement of Work (SOW) that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has obtained, eighteen professional chefs from some of China’s most upscale restaurants will come to America for the five-day training endeavor. The chefs, whom USDA’s Agricultural Trade Office in Shanghai is tasked with selecting, must pay for their own airfare; however, the U.S. government will cover remaining expenses such as lodging, training fees, and transportation during their stay.

Upon their return to China, some of these chefs will participate in a USDA-coordinated “Great American” menu-promotion initiative.

Ultimately, USDA is aiming to “create demand for more American food and beverage products in China’s rapidly developing food service sector,” according to the SOW.

TPR Urges Public Citizen To Address U.S.-Subsidized Saudi-China Oil Project

The Peacock Report today alerted Public Citizen Energy Director Tyson Slocum to the U.S. taxpayer subsidization of a massive oil refinery project in China -- a subsidy that directly benefits a single multinational company that the Saudi Arabian government and a Chinese conglomerate jointly own. Slocum is scheduled to appear on Comedy Central's Colbert Report tonight (Tues., May 16) and tomorrow (Wed., May 17), when he will be afforded the opportunity to weigh in on record-high gas prices and America's reliance on fossil fuels.

TPR is encouraging viewers to tune in to Colbert, the comedian/political commentator who recently made headlines for his hilarious face-to-face roasting of President Bush and the Washington, D.C., Press Corps.

Tyson personally responded to a message from TPR founder Steve Peacock, and has expressed interest in discussing the issue further. While it is unlikely that Tyson will be able to take up the Saudi-China oil issue with Colbert on such short notice, TPR intends to share data on the matter with Public Citizen.

TPR is renewing efforts to have the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) publicly reveal how -- and why -- it is using funds from the U.S. Treasury to financially assist the billionaire Saudi royal family and its Chinese partners in the construction of this sprawling petroleum facility -- an investment that will not benefit U.S. consumers one iota, as the facility will crank out construction products, and not fuel, specifically for the booming housing market across Asia.

TPR in the meantime is seeking detailed data on this project and has filed a disclosure request with USTDA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

It should be noted that TPR's Peacock last year brought this project to the attention of the Washington Post -- which ignored it -- and the Knight-Ridder wire service -- which rejected it since it came from a freelance writer.

Similarly, the Knight-Ridder-owned Times-Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., would not publish the Peacock article, claiming that the piece did not have a "local angle."  The editor politely declined to use the article, despite the fact that USTDA activities are subject to oversight by the House Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee -- whose vice-chairman is Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Pa.), representative of the 10th Congressional District in the Times-Leader's territory of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

To read the full text of that article, click the link below.

Here's an excerpt from the article. Don't read it and weep; read it and write to your elected federal official instead.

The federal government is finally taking action as the price of gas at the pump continues to respectively reach or exceed $3.00 per gallon across the United States. Specifically, the White House has agreed, without fanfare, to finance the initial phase of the largest petrochemical refinery project that the modern world has witnessed.

Will this initiative take place in California, where consumers pay upwards of $3.30 a gallon [now even higher], readers may wonder? Or will it be Texas? Alaska, maybe? Utah, perhaps?

Actually, the Shuangdao Bay Petrochemical Complex Project, as it is known, will be launched in northeastern China.

Yes, in China, the nation with whom the U.S. in June [2005] suffered a record $67 billion trade deficit.

According to unpublicized contracting documents obtained via the Electronic Posting System (an online database for private contractors also known as FedBizOpps), the Bush Administration has agreed to pay for a pre-construction “feasibility study” which, among other stated goals, will “evaluate project economics and financing facing an increasingly competitive marketplace.”

The contract award for the study, which under the agreement with the foreign companies must be given to a U.S. firm, totals less than $900,000. Few could doubt that this sub-million-dollar study is relatively insignificant in financial terms when weighed against overall federal expenditures.

However, U.S. taxpayers and gasoline consumers may indeed take issue with the fact that they will be footing the bill on behalf of Saudi Basic Industries Corp.(SABIC),which annually produces 42 million tons of petrochemicals and more than $12 billion in revenues, and its project partner Dalian Shide Group (DSG), a Chinese conglomerate with $2 billion in yearly revenues.

Although the aim of the Shuangdao Bay project is to build a massive, modern facility to refine crude oil, the end-product does not involve gasoline. Rather, the plant’s objective will be to mass-produce polyvinyl chlorides, or PVCs, used in the manufacturing of construction materials.

“This project will be one of the largest refinery petrochemical projects in China and internationally,” the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (TDA) said in a contracting document known as a presolicitation notice. “Given the current and forecasted explosive growth rate in the building materials market in China, the desire of Dalian [DSG] to back integrate into petrochemical raw materials is viewed as a logical and rational strategy.”

It is unknown whether U.S. consumers share DSG’s or TDA’s logic or rationale behind this “investment.” While TDA publicly announced and unveiled various other ventures around the same time, it was curiously silent about Guangdao Bay, which at the time of this writing remains unreported in the media.

As a so-called “independent” agency of the White House, TDA oversees and funds portions of energy, finance and infrastructure projects proposed by – or for – developing countries. The agency funds scientific and engineering studies in order to screen whether it is feasible or profitable for host countries, the World Bank or other donors to finance the bulk of each initiative.

TDA does not hide what it touts as its leading role in creating opportunities for U.S. manufacturers and exporters. Despite what is arguably the siphoning of money from the Treasury and the transferring of those funds into the pockets of mature, U.S.-based multinationals, the agency boasts of its mission and its accomplishments.

“Our programs promote capacity-building initiatives and help to advance U.S. Government trade, economic policy and development objectives around the world,” TDA Dir. Thelma Askey says in her online ‘Director’s Welcome.’ “Our goal is to make mutually beneficial connections between U.S. businesses and overseas project sponsors that assist countries in meeting important development goals using U.S. goods. services and technology.”

Congressional Appropriations Committees year after year have inserted clauses into TDA’s budget seeking to prevent the use of tax dollars for projects leading to the flight of U.S. companies – and capital – overseas. Although TDA endeavors are, in the agency’s own words, “mutually beneficial” for U.S. and foreign companies, they inherently cast congressional restrictions into a gray area, since the agency can argue that initiatives such as Shuangdao Bay help to increase U.S. exports.