US Ex-Im Bank votes to reverse ban on overseas coal lending

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - The board of the U.S. Export-Import Bank unanimously voted on Thursday to reverse a years-long restriction on lending to coal projects overseas, reflecting President Donald Trump's agenda that calls for more domestic coal mining and exports of U.S. coal.

The vote took happened less than a month after the White House issued an executive order aimed at reviving the U.S. coal industry, which included a measure directing Ex-Im and the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to open up facilities for coal developers.

The board's vote now aligns Ex-Im's Environmental and Social Due Diligence Procedures and Guidelines with another Trump executive order to put "America First in International Environmental Agreements," an Ex-Im spokesperson told Reuters.

The federal bank, which finances projects overseas, had aimed to account for climate change impacts in investment decisions under the Biden administration and had not financed a coal project for more than a decade.

"Ex-Im's decision to allow U.S. taxpayer money to be used to finance overseas coal projects is an economic and climate disaster. It takes Ex-Im's policies back two decades, when it was one of the largest financiers of overseas coal projects in the world," said Jake Schmidt, senior strategic director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, who was an observer at the board meeting.