UK to use L1bn meant for green energy to support fracking in Argentina

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

The polluters

UK to use £1bn meant for green energy to support fracking in Argentina

Documents show government’s plans to prioritise loans in support of major oil companies

Jillian Ambrose
Tue 22 Oct 2019 12.04 BST
Last modified on Tue 22 Oct 2019 12.42 BST

The UK is planning to invest in Argentina’s controversial oil shale industry using a £1bn export finance deal intended to support green energy, according to government documents seen by the Guardian.

UK Export Finance, the government’s foreign credit agency, promised in 2017 to offer loans totalling £1bn to help UK companies export their expertise in “infrastructure, green energy and healthcare” to invest in Argentina’s economy.

Instead official records, released through a freedom of information request, have revealed the government’s plan to prioritise support for major oil companies, including Shell and BP, which are fracking in Argentina’s vast Vaca Muerta shale heartlands.

One government memo, uncovered by Friends of the Earth, said that while Argentina’s clean energy sector was growing, it was “Argentina’s huge shale resources that offer the greatest potential” for the UK.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/22/uk-to-use-1bn-meant-for-green-energy-to-support-fracking-in-argentina

[sandensea]

1. Fracking: About the only thing Macri and Fernandez both agree on

Argentina, as you know, has a perennial foreign exchange shortage.

But this was made all the more acute by Macri, under whom foreign debt interest ballooned from $5 billion in 2015 to close to $20 billion this year.

And those bills don't pay themselves: Argentina must either earn the dollars (exports, tourism, etc.) or borrow them.

As some of us predicted, Macri - like the 1976 dictatorship - borrowed colossal amounts (some $113 billion, net) to finance his "bicycle" debt bubble and the subsequent offshoring of the proceeds - so now, they need the foreign exchange more than ever.

Thanks to a bumper crop and a near-depression (the 'Macrisis'), the trade surplus this year will be around $12 billion - and it's still not nearly enough!

Fernández, therefore, may enact additional environmental safeguards (as Mrs. Kirchner did, with the 2010 Glacier Law) - but sadly, fracking is here to stay in Argentina for the foreseeable future.

Macri's debt crisis guarantees that.

Thank you for finding and posting this, Eugene. Always lots of intrigue around Big Awl.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Any "forward thinking" here concerns Macri's benefit, not Argentina's. What a shame. n/t