The giant Sasan Power Project, developed by Reliance Power in India, includes a coal mine and a coal-fired power plant with a capacity of nearly 4,000MW and annual emissions of 26.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Ex-Im is to provide support to South Milwaukee-based Bucyrus International, contracted to provide mining equipment. Initially the export credit agency declined to support the project because of its impact on climate change, but executed a u-turn days after voting to turn down Reliance. 

A spokeswoman for Bucyrus said that $310 million of the deal is for “contracts that we have in hand”, while the remaining financing is for options for future contracts. The issue will now go to Congress for a final decision – all Ex-Im’s financings over $100 million must be notified to Congress.

Bucyrus says the deal will support around 1,000 jobs in the US. However, a coalition of environmental NGOs including the Sierra Club and Pacific Environment oppose the financing.

Ex-Im is due to vote on another major coal project in September, this time the 5,000MW Kusile coal-fired power plant in South Africa. The NGOs estimate that Kusile will emit more than 150% of the annual carbon dioxide emissions of all the projects supported by Ex-Im in 2009.

Ex-Im and Reliance did not return requests for comment before press time.

Jess McCabe