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.
