2 June 2021

Agency in Hot Water for Financing Fracking in the Dark

Showing the receipts for one of the Trump administration’s many gifts to Big Oil, three environmental nonprofits [Center for Biological Diversity, Center for International Environmental Law, and Friends of the Earth U.S.] brought a federal complaint Wednesday over a government entity’s recent effort to exempt itself from public meetings law.

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation published the change last April in the Federal Register, saying there is no need for it to follow a Watergate-era law called the Sunshine Act that requires federal agencies to open every meeting for public observation…

Stephanie Amoako is a senior policy associate with the Accountability Counsel, which advocates for people harmed by the kinds of projects supported by OPIC and the DFC. “The DFC should welcome any opportunity to increase transparency and accountability to the public,” Amoako said in a phone call, “particularly those most affected by the projects.” Read the full article here.