U.S. Getting Closer to Funding China Enviro Clean-Ups, Brazil Airport and Ukraine '9-1-1' Upgrades

U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor ^ | April 6, 2012 | Steve Peacock

[Steve Peacock]

The U.S. government yesterday took the next step towards partly financing environmental cleanup projects in China. As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor previously reported, the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) last month issued a Scope of Work related to a series of groundwater remediation initiatives in China—projects for which that nation intend to infuse (USD) $5.5 billion of its own money through 2020 (Monitor, March 16).

Nonetheless, USTDA awarded a $44,000 contract to Ascendant Program Services, LLC, a Bethesda, Md.-based infrastructure consulting firm, to embark upon a "definitional mission," or DM, to China. (Contract award #USTDA-CO201261140).

Despite the seemingly inconsequential price tag of the DM, it is one of several potential exploratory missions for which USTDA might fund—standard steps that the agency typically takes, such as the crafting of next-step “feasibility studies”—before arranging much larger financing of the actual remediation projects.

Ascendant now will travel to Beijing and two other cities that the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has identified as "priority locations for groundwater and soil remediation projects."

The contract is one of a trio that the company secured from USTDA since last year. The agency awarded Ascendant a $35,000 contract, for example, to perform a feasibility study of an emergency call center project for the Government of Ukraine.

Likewise, in 2011 it separately awarded it a $50,000 contract to carry out a definitional mission to Brazil, where it was to evaluate possible USTDA funding of airport modernization projects.

As a follow-up measure to that Ascendant mission, the agency last week agreed to give a $485,000 “technical assistance” grant to the Rio de Janeiro State Transport Secretariat toward such airport projects. The Secretariat will not use the money for actual modernization of transportation infrastructure; rather, the funds will help the Rio state authority to “update its statewide airport plan and develop a funding strategy to modernize and expand the state's airport and heliport networks,” USTDA announced.

There is an “urgent need” to fund the project, USTDA justified, as Brazil is experiencing “rapidly increasing air traffic” while also preparing for an influx of visitors due to the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Games.

[Steve Peacock]

I stopped posting such USTDA-related articles to another site, as one commenter there attacked me because of the contracts’ lack of financial magnitude. But I predict that FR readers will agree that these government contracts add up to a whole lot more unnecessary theft from the U.S. Treasury.

This is why I call USTDA “The Half-Million-Dollar Pickpocket.” While it typically awards contracts ranging from $25,000 to $1 million, these awards are preliminary vehicles for further government waster and business subsidies. They pave the way for bigger financing, whether through USTDA or other entities such as the World Bank.

[tm61]

there’s a job for obamma, if we can get him out of the white house. send him over to china with a broom and a dust pan.

carter at least, for all his faults, is willing to get his hands dirty, and build homes for habitat for humanity.

dont see obamma doing anything like that.

[DesertRhino]

Just to make sure i understand,,, we are borrowing money, to give away to other nations, including to China, whom we often borrow from, and to Brazil, who just struck oil and can afford modeern fighter jets?

Why is this not insane?

[khelus]

Just to make sure i understand,,, we are borrowing money, to give away to other nations, including to China, whom we often borrow from, and to Brazil, who just struck oil and can afford modern fighter jets?

You got it. In addition we are borrowing money to rehab Mexican trucks so they can compete with Americans, to pay tuition for Chinese STEM students, to pay for post doc work for Indian scientists, to set up CDC labs over seas, to subsidize low wage immigrants @ ~$20,000 net per household annually, to subsidize illegals @ ~1/3 - 1/2 trillion per year, to subsidize the Moslem Brotherhood in the middle east, to give untold hundreds of million to brand new immigrants who are plopped on SSI etc.

[556x45]

Really, I suspect few will figure that out. Its insanity, total insanity.

[Steve Peacock]

Not that I buy into the official justification for such spending, but them following quote is USTDA’s official, attempted explanation of its role in transferring money from OUR pockets to other countries and to the US businesses who benefit from such “generosity”:

“The Agency’s programs are responsible for generating over $17.6 billion in U.S. exports to emerging markets, supporting an estimated 110,000 American jobs over the last 10 year period. That means over $58 in exports of U.S.-manufactured goods and services for every $1 programmed.”

Any thoughts?

[Steve Peacock]

Not that I buy into the official justification for such spending, but the following quote is USTDA’s official, attempted explanation of its role in transferring money from OUR pockets to other countries and to the US businesses who benefit from such “generosity”:

“The Agency’s programs are responsible for generating over $17.6 billion in U.S. exports to emerging markets, supporting an estimated 110,000 American jobs over the last 10 year period. That means over $58 in exports of U.S.-manufactured goods and services for every $1 programmed.”

Any thoughts?

[RedMDer]

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[clearcarbon]

Great news. More comrade BO shovel ready jobs
for Americans to do the work the Chinese won't do.