Erin Houchin Slams Biden Admin For Supporting Policies That ‘Only Seem To Help China’
On Tuesday, Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN) questioned Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a House Financial Services Committee hearing.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Transcript
00:00That would go to the gentlelady from Indiana, Ms. Houchin, recognized for five minutes.
00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:06Thank you to the Ranking Member, and thank you, Secretary Yellen,
00:08for your testimony and being here today.
00:10Like many of my colleagues, I have concerns about the ways in which this administration continues
00:16to support policies and practices at international financial institutions that do nothing
00:21to further American interests and instead seem to only help China and our competitors continue
00:27to make gains at our expense, from allowing mission creep into social and climate issues
00:32to giving our adversaries the upper hand in key geostrategic regions.
00:37This administration has been allowing America's influence abroad
00:41to be undermined, and it has to stop.
00:44Starting with the first of this month and running until the end of next June,
00:48the World Bank is aiming to devote 45% of its financing to climate-related programs.
00:53In the bank's latest annual report, climate was referred to some 200 times,
00:59largely in the context of the bank's green energy investments and reducing the reliance
01:03of developing countries on fossil fuels.
01:06At the same time, China has been taking an all-of-the-above approach
01:09to energy investments, pushing renewable energy while also developing oil and gas resources.
01:16One of our foremost concerns when it comes to China and the CCP is the extent
01:20to which they exert their influence over developing countries by providing funding
01:24for basic necessities, when half the population
01:27of sub-Saharan Africa does not have access to electricity to begin with,
01:31it's not hard to see why China's influence in that area might be growing.
01:35Secretary Yellen, if 45% of the bank's resources are chasing arbitrary climate targets,
01:41why wouldn't developing countries keep looking to China and to Chinese lenders
01:45to meet their core developmental needs?
01:48Well, the World Bank and the MDBs are heavily focused on broad development goals,
01:55relieving poverty and ensuring sustainable growth.
02:00But achieving those goals is also linked to addressing climate,
02:07which is increasingly compromising the development goals,
02:13especially in the poorest places.
02:16And climate and access to electricity are linked
02:20at the spring IMF World Bank meetings of President Banga.
02:25Secretary Yellen, I'm sorry, I only have five minutes,
02:28so I'm going to go on to another question.
02:30Sixty percent of the U.S. electricity generation does come from fossil fuels,
02:35but as part of this administration's climate agenda,
02:38you are voting against virtually all World Bank fossil fuel projects in Africa.
02:43Why is the Treasury holding Africans to a standard
02:46that the wealthiest countries in the world cannot meet?
02:51This reflects the goals that Africa itself has, that very often,
02:58most often, renewables aren't the cheapest way of developing energy.
03:06And it's a question of bringing electricity in Africa.
03:12Six hundred million Africans lack electricity,
03:17and renewables both address climate change and resilience
03:22and are the cheapest way of bringing electricity to those who don't have it.
03:28There's a goal of bringing...
03:31I'm sorry, one of the most egregious examples
03:33of the World Bank empowering China
03:35and its efforts to expand its geopolitical influence
03:38has been through allowing the CCP to overbuild its production capacity
03:42in certain products in order to flood the markets to other countries.
03:46They've done that with industries like aluminum extrusion,
03:48and now they've done it with solar technology.
03:50Last May, the President doubled U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar cells,
03:54and since the World Bank is aiming to direct 45 percent of its financing
03:58in the next year to climate projects,
04:00the bank's money may still just go to purchase Chinese solar panels,
04:05batteries, and the like.
04:07This seems to be supporting China financially
04:09in their efforts to expand their geopolitical footprint.
04:13Why is the Treasury supporting this
04:15if the department is concerned with Chinese overcapacity
04:17and the CCP dominating the market in green energy industries?
04:21Well, we are very concerned and attentive to procurement strategies
04:26and make sure that all of the MDBs have open processes
04:34and that American firms rarely bid on these contracts,
04:41and we want them to do so.
04:43Does the Treasury and the department,
04:45do they intend to then roll back the reliance on Chinese solar panels
04:52in order to prevent them from profiting financially
04:56from the United States in this way?
05:01Well, if American firms are...