Heritage Action opposes the Export-Import Bank because it's a tool for cronyism and an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars, putting us on the hook for multi-million dollar loans to foreign companies. Our money has gone to a number of frivolous projects, such as an aquarium in Brazil and the export of PV modules (solar panels) to the Barbados-based company, Williams Industries-Williams Evergreen.
The Ex-Im Bank is used very strategically by the left, however. Some say, for good reason, that the Bank is used as yet another means of waging President Obama's war on coal. As evidence of this, the Bank's officials said in a telegraph that the Bank is part of a coordinated effort to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency exports. They've followed through on this statement by "facilitating alternative energy projects all over the world."
The Ex-Im Bank is not only pro-green energy; it is openly hostile to coal, mostly thanks to political pressure from liberal groups. The bank "rescinded more than $300 million in assistance that had been promised to an Indian company planning to build a coal-fired power plant," after the Sierra Club protested the loan. The Ex-Im Bank then assured this type of behavior, "recklessly" supporting "dirty coal," wouldn't happen again.
Regardless of whether the loan is for green energy companies or coal companies, the Export-Import Bank should not exist. Of course, the left operates by a double standard, and though they support the Ex-Im Bank when it provides taxpayer-funded loan guarantees to green energy companies, they harshly chastise the bank for lending money for the development a coal company. It seems they can't handle having a taste of their own medicine.