{"id":12819,"date":"2014-02-28T06:25:47","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T06:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/us-moves-ahead-on-massive-africa-power-bid\/"},"modified":"2014-02-28T06:25:33","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T06:25:33","slug":"us-moves-ahead-on-massive-africa-power-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/us-moves-ahead-on-massive-africa-power-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"US Moves Ahead on Massive Africa Power Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{US lawmakers broke through a logjam Thursday on a plan to bring electricity to 50 million Africans, in what Washington hopes will be its next major initiative for the continent.}}<\/p>\n

During a visit to Africa in June, President Barack Obama announced a US drive to improve power for the two thirds of Africans who lack a reliable supply.<\/p>\n

But legislation in Congress, which is more concrete and ambitious than Obama\u2019s initial statement, had been held up by a dispute on whether to support electrical plants that produce large amounts of carbon blamed for climate change.<\/p>\n

The bill, approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sets a goal of installing 20,000 megawatts of power in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020 and reaching at least 50 million people who do not have electricity.<\/p>\n

The funding would come from the private sector, using government-backed credit guarantees.<\/p>\n

Representative Ed Royce, who chairs the panel, hailed the Electrify Africa Act as a way for the United States to contribute to the continent\u2019s development, as lack of power impedes everything from education to health care.<\/p>\n

Royce, a Republican who worked on the bill with members of Obama\u2019s Democratic Party, said that the plan would also help American companies tap into a growing consumer market and show US engagement in the face of China\u2019s rising presence in Africa.<\/p>\n

The bill still needs approval from the full House of Representatives and Senate, but the committee vote indicated broad support.<\/p>\n

However, the legislation came under fire from Representative Mo Brooks, a conservative Republican from Alabama who said that the United States was not financially sound enough to be \u201cbuilding power plants and power lines in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI very much appreciate the altruistic motivations that I\u2019ve heard in support of this legislation, but quite frankly, I don\u2019t believe America\u2019s financial condition is such that it supports spending money that we don\u2019t have on these projects,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers from both parties countered that the US-backed financial institutions involved in the initiative \u2013 the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC, and the Export-Import Bank \u2013 do not spend taxpayer money and in fact create US jobs by boosting economic activity.<\/p>\n

Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly denounced Brooks\u2019s view as \u201cdangerous\u201d and said of the act: \u201cIt\u2019s not just \u2018altruism,\u2019 it\u2019s enlightened self-interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be the person who has to answer the next generation, \u2018Why is Africa-Chinese trade the dominant trade in that part of the world and we don\u2019t even have a slice of it?\u2019 And the answer is because somebody, somewhere, 20 years before said we can\u2019t afford it,\u201d Connolly said.<\/p>\n

Obama had promoted electricity as the next big goal for the United States in Africa after his predecessor, George W. Bush, worked with Democrats to fight diseases including HIV\/AIDS and former president Bill Clinton helped jumpstart trade.<\/p>\n

But the bill had been held up as corporations pushed to ease existing requirements that OPIC steer clear of carbon-intense projects.<\/p>\n

General Electric said it supported renewable energy but that efforts in Africa also needed other sources, such as gas.<\/p>\n

In a compromise, the bill does not address the issue. The fight was partially diverted as Congress took up OPIC funding when drafting the $1.1 trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2014.<\/p>\n

Environmentalists argued that major fossil fuel projects have proven to be a failure in much of Africa and that US investment could encourage more innovative clean energy in a continent expected to be hard hit by climate change.<\/p>\n

One, the anti-poverty group co-founded by U2 frontman Bono, pressed for passage of the legislation.<\/p>\n

Tom Hart, the group\u2019s US executive director, said that the bill \u201cshows the best face of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{US lawmakers broke through a logjam Thursday on a plan to bring electricity to 50 million Africans, in what Washington hopes will be its next major initiative for the continent.}} During a visit to Africa in June, President Barack Obama announced a US drive to improve power for the two thirds of Africans who lack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-12819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050623,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12819.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12819.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12819.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12819.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12819.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12819.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12819"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=12819"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=12819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}