Amendment cutting off gov’t dollars for Iran gasoline passes committee

Legislation that would help to decrease gasoline imports to Iran passed the House Appropriations Committee by voice vote on Tuesday.

The amendment to the 2010 State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill was proposed by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and would prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to guarantee, insure or extend credit to any company that supplies gasonline to Iran. The congressmen noted that the U.S. Export-Import Bank, in both 2007 and 2008, approved two separate loan guarantee totaling $900 million to expand a refinery owned by Reliance Industries Limited. an Indian company that provides about a third of Iran’s daily imports of gasoline.

Iran, while a leading exporter of oil, lacks enough refining capacity to meet its internal fuel demand and imports as much as 40 percent of its gasoline.

"We know that Iran’s greatest weakness remains its economic dependence on foreign gasoline," said Rep. Kirk, co-founder of the bipartisan Iran Working Group.  "While students are murdered in the streets of Tehran, we should not use taxpayer money to bolster the Iranian economy."

Broader legislation which would sanction companies that help Iran refine petroleum or providing refined gasoline to the country was introduced in the House and Senate this spring, and is backed by AIPAC.

After the jump, the full press release, which includes the full wording of the amendment:[[READMORE]]

House Appropriations Committee Approves New Sanctions Targeting Iran’s Gasoline Supply
 
Kirk-Sherman Amendment Prohibits U.S. Export-Import Bank Loans, Credits and Guarantees for Companies Providing Gasoline to Iran

WASHINGTON – The House Appropriations Committee today voted to approve new sanctions targeting Iran’s gasoline supply – the regime’s greatest economic vulnerability.

An amendment to the FY 2010 State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Act proposed by U.S. Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) prohibits the U.S. Export-Import Bank from providing credit, insurance, or guarantees to companies that export gasoline to Iran or support the regime’s domestic production.

"We know that Iran’s greatest weakness remains its economic dependence on foreign gasoline," said Congressman Kirk, co-founder of the bipartisan Iran Working Group.  "While students are murdered in the streets of Tehran, we should not use taxpayer money to bolster the Iranian economy."

Despite its status as a top OPEC nation, Iran lacks the required refining capacity to meet domestic demand for fuel and must import some 40 percent of its gasoline.  Nearly all of Iran’s imported gasoline is provided by five European companies – the Swiss firm Vitol, the Swiss/Dutch firm Trafigura, the French firm Total, the Swiss firm Glencore, British Petroleum, and the Indian firm Reliance.

In 2007 and 2008, the U.S. Export-Import Bank approved two separate loan guarantees totaling $900 million to expand the largest refinery owned by Reliance, which provides roughly one-third of Iran’s daily import of gasoline.
 
The text of the amendment, as adopted in the Manager’s Amendment to the bill, appears below:

Limitation on the Use of Funds by the Export-Import Bank Related to Iran.-
None of the funds made available in Title VI under the headings "Program Account" and "Subsidy Appropriation" may be used by the Export-Import Bank of the United States to guarantee, insure, or extend credit for any project controlled by an energy producer or refiner that provides the Islamic Republic of Iran with significant refined petroleum resources, that materially contributes to Iran’s capability to import refined petroleum resources, or that allows Iran to maintain or expand, in any material respect, its domestic production of refined petroleum resources, including any assistance in refinery construction,
modernization, or repair.