(CNSNews.com) – The Environmental Protection Agency has given at least $1,285,535 in grants to China to promote environmental research in the country.
In all, the EPA issued six grants that went to China, most of which pertained to researching methane in Chinese coal mines and reducing carbon emissions in China, a communist dictatorship long criticized by human rights groups. Two of those grants were awarded during the Bush administration; four were awarded during the Obama administration.
The issue, at a time of mounting debt and deficits, is about fiscal responsibility, said Robert Gordon, senior advisor for strategic outreach for the Heritage Foundation, who has closely monitored EPA grants, and recently wrote a piece criticizing the Chinese grants.
“I’m just not sure that the EPA has addressed all the things it’s supposed to be doing here in the best manner possible before they’re spending money overseas,” Gordon told CNSNews.com. “At the end of the day, we’re spending money that we don’t have and on things we shouldn’t be spending it on if we had it.”
The grants to China were awarded through the EPA’s Coalbed Methane Outreach Program (CMOP). Since 1994, CMOP has worked cooperatively with the coal industry in the U.S. and internationally to reduce coal mining methane emissions, according to the EPA...[Full Article]
