American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2022 - 14

IndustryDigest
estimates the 23-million-acre region on
the western North Slope-roughly the
size of the state of Indiana-contains 8.7
billion barrels of undiscovered,
technically recoverable oil. ❒
U.S. Export-Import Bank
Launches Initiative
That May Help LNG
WASHINGTON-The U.S. ExportImport
Bank (EXIM) has approved a
new tool that some say may help U.S.
liquefied natural gas export terminals
secure funding.
In a mid-April announcement,
EXIM said its board voted 3-0 to
approve the Make More in America
Initiative, which it describes as an
effort to unlock financing for American
manufacturing, strengthen America's
global competitiveness, close critical
supply chain gaps and support
American jobs. The bank says the
initiative will immediately make
available the agency's existing
medium- and long-term loans and loan
guarantees for export-oriented
domestic manufacturing projects.
Reta Jo Lewis, who chairs EXIM
and serves as its president, says the
undertaking will improve U.S.
competitiveness. " The Make More in
America Initiative will create new
financing opportunities that spur
manufacturing in the United States,
support American jobs and boost
America's ability to compete with
countries like China, " Lewis predicts.
" The global pandemic and other
recent events have exposed supply
chain gaps in critical sectors like
advanced manufacturing and
renewable energy. EXIM's Make
More in America Initiative will be a
key tool in tackling these issues, and
it will ultimately help America
manufacture more and export more. "
Peter Harrell, special assistant to the
President and the National Security
Council's senior director for
international economics and
competitiveness, says the initiative is
part of the Biden administration's
efforts to address longer-term
weaknesses in U.S. supply chains that
he attributes to decades of
underinvestment, outsourcing and
offshoring. " To solve this problem,
America needs to leverage every one of
14 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
our nation's tools, and I am pleased that
EXIM has moved this initiative
forward, " Harrell says.
In an April 14 statement that
appeared in published reports, Fred
Hutchison, president and chief
executive officer of LNG Allies,
expressed optimism about the new
initiative. " Although U.S. LNG export
projects have traditionally been able to
secure private sector construction loans
(backed by long-term contracts with
creditworthy counterparties), today's
action by the Ex-Im Bank's board could
prove beneficial during the current
global LNG shortage, which could well
last for several more years, " Hutchison
is quoted.
EXIM says the Make More in
America Initiative was developed in
response to Biden's Executive Order
14017 on American Supply Chains
and provides U.S. manufacturers-
particularly small- and medium-sized
businesses-new access to capital to fill
critical supply chain gaps. The
initiative will incentivize applications
in environmentally beneficial, small
business and transformational export
transactions (including
semiconductors, biotech and
biomedical products, renewable
energy, and energy storage). The
financing tool makes available EXIM's
existing medium- and long-term loans
and loan guarantees to American
manufacturing projects that export.
The bank goes on to say that Make
More in America financing
complements EXIM's existing foreign
buyer financing programs and other
government programs, and should
spur growth and security of critical
supply chains in ways that support
EXIM's core mission of bolstering
U.S. job growth.
EXIM adds that Board Director and
former Congressman Spencer Bachus,
R-Al., sponsored an amendment to the
accepted measure that strengthened
transparency and congressional
reporting measures by requiring board
approval for any changes to the
initiative and providing Congress
advance notice of any domestic
finance transaction greater than $50
million, in addition to EXIM's
statutory requirement to notify
Congress for all traditional
transactions greater than $100 million.
❒
Biden Administration
Raises CAFE Standards
WASHINGTON-The U.S.
Department of Transportation's National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration
kicked off April by announcing new fuel
economy standards based on an
executive order President Biden issued
during his first days in office. DOT
asserts that the new standards will make
vehicles more efficient, save consumers
money at the pump and reduce
transportation emissions.
According to DOT, the new
Corporate Average Fuel Economy
standards require an industrywide fleet
average of approximately 49 miles per
gallon for passenger cars and light
trucks in model year 2026, the strictest
standards to date. The new requirements
will increase fuel efficiency 8% annually
for model years 2024-2025 and 10%
annually for model year 2026. They also
will increase the estimated fleetwide
average by nearly 10 mpg for model
year 2026, relative to model year 2021.
Since CAFE was signed into law in
1975, DOT says the standards have
reduced U.S. oil consumption by 25%,
or approximately 5 million barrels a day
across that time.
The new CAFE standards for model
year 2024-26 will reduce fuel use by
more than 200 billion gallons through
2050, as compared with continuing
under the old standards, the department
says. According to U.S. Transportation
Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the
requirements will help U.S. consumers.
" American families will be able to drive
further before they have to fill up, saving
hundreds of dollars per year, " Buttigieg
maintains. " These improvements will
also make our country less vulnerable to
global shifts in the price of oil, and
protect communities by reducing carbon
emissions by 2.5 billion metric tons. "
According to press accounts, Alliance
for Automotive Innovation Chief
Executive Officer John Bozzella says the
revision " will require supportive policies
as well as regulatory alignment with the
Environmental Protection Agency to
ensure that standards can be attained
when considering a host of factors,
including safety, consumer preferences,
improved fuel economy and the
transition to electrification. "
The CAFE standards are a product of
Biden's EO 13990, which directed
American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2022

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