The Trump Administration Protested when Kenya Halted Construction of a Coal-Fired Power Plant
c0lo writes:
The Trump Administration Protested when Kenya Halted Construction of a Coal-Fired Power Plant:
When the Kenyan government had second thoughts about allowing the country's first coal-fired power plant, the Trump Administration's representative in the country protested.
U.S. Ambassador Kyle McCarter, a Trump appointee who previously served as a Republican state senator in Illinois, went on Twitter to argue in a string of tweets that coal is environmentally sound, that the plant would boost the country's economy and that a critical analysis of the plant from a clean energy think tank amounted only to the work of "highly paid protestors."
"Coal is the cleanest, least costly option," U.S. Ambassador Kyle McCarter wrote from his official Twitter last week. "Investors will come."
[...] McCarter['s] Twitter comments began on June 25, after Kenya's National Environmental Tribunal's announced that it would halt construction of the Lamu coal-fired power plant, which would have been the first such power plant in the country. The court said the project's planners had failed to engage the local community and argued that the environmental review conducted ahead of the project did not adequately address several environmental issues including the country's commitment to fighting climate change. The project could still be revived if a new environmental assessment adequately addresses the concerns laid out in the decision.
[...] The U.S. recently launched a program promoting investment in the region, intended to serve as a geopolitical counterweight to China's growing influence, and McCarter seemed to suggest that a coal-fired new power plant would advance U.S. investment. Still, on its face, the project raises questions about how it would serve U.S. interests over China's given that it is financed by China and would be built by Chinese developers.
In a contrast to McCarter's remarks, the Chinese ambassador to Kenya met with opponents of the coal-fired power plant on June 28 and told them that he supported the will of "the people of Kenya" to "decide whether there would be a coal power plant or not," according to a statement from activists.
Also on:
Associated Press, Guardian, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.