U.S. taxpayer dollars are being spent to help finance a gas pipeline through a rare forest ecosystem in Bolivia, in violation of Clinton administration policies, enviro groups say. U.S. energy giants Enron and Shell are working with the Bolivian consortium Transredes to build a 243-mile pipeline that will run through Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest, considered to be one of the world’s most sensitive eco-regions, and through the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil, one of the world’s richest wildlife habitats. The project is being financed in part by a $200 million loan from the Overseas Private Investment Corp., a U.S. government agency, even though OPIC’s own regulations bar it from financing “infrastructure projects in primary tropical forests.” Friends of the Earth, Amazon Watch, and other enviro groups are pushing for a congressional investigation into OPIC’s handling of the pipeline project.
