Why Is the US Sending Money To China To Help It Meet Air Pollution Standards ?

What's $100 million between friends?  Over the past decade the Environmental Protection agency has given $100 Million dollars to foreign governments and organizations to help them solve their environmental problems.  While the program began under the Bush administration, like all kinds of spending it has intensified under President Obama $27 of the $100 million was spend during the past year and a half.

As the report (embedded below) describes:

"At a time of record debt and soaring unemployment here in the United States, the committee has discovered that EPA has intensified its foreign grants program," the report said.

The Committee sent EPA head Lisa Jackson a letter which said in part

“We are concerned that, more broadly, EPA’s awarding of foreign grants reflects a surprising detachment from our nation’s foremost priorities, including those in the environmental realm,” the top Republicans on the panel said Monday in a letter to Jackson."

Some of the money given out by the Obama administration-led EPA includes

• $718,000 to help China comply with both the Stockholm and Long Range Transport of Air Pollutants Convention (can't they count this as a partial payback of the money we own them?)

• $700,000 for Thailand to recover methane gas at 12 pig farms

• $1,226,841 for the United Nations to promote clean fuels

• $150,000 for INTERPOL to combat fraud in carbon trading

• $15,000 for Indonesia’s “Breathe Easy, Jakarta” publicity campaign

The GOP lawmakers on the committee requested that EPA provide a series of documents related to the grants.

“We hope you would agree that in these challenging economic times, with unemployment at over 9 percent, federal spending should reflect the priorities of the American people,” the letter says. “This includes investment in the American economy and its greatest assets — the American worker and those who create the jobs they fill.

...Assisting the Chinese mining industry or the Chinese government with methane recovery would probably not occur to most Americans as the most valuable use of these funds- especially as China holds over $1.1 trillion in United States Treasury Securities. We are concerned that, more broadly, EPA’s awarding of foreign grants reflects a surprising detachment from our nation’s foremost priorities, including those in the environmental realm.”

It is incredible that the same progressive Democrats who want to kill more job through increased taxation, are OK with giving money to Thailand so they can collect methane from Pigs.  This same administration that is doing its best to prevent us from attaining energy independence by exploiting our own energy resources is perfectly willing to send money to an unfriendly Brazil so they can exploit theirs.  Isn't it time to stop the madness and handcuff some of these  job killing, money wasting federal government functions before we even consider raising new revenue? A good place to begin maybe the dismantling of both the EPA and the Department of Energy and transferring any necessary functions to other Departments.

062711MajMemorandum