Posted on 05/19/2007 2:50:48 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand
Wednesday May 16, 3:37 pm ET Institution Will Finance Energy-Saving Retrofits of Buildings in Major Cities
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citi today announced that it is committing $1 billion to the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), a project of the Clinton Foundation, to implement the new Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program in partnership with large city governments. Citi will provide expertise and financing for the first generation of projects in CCI's landmark program aimed at significantly reducing energy use in public and private buildings, which are responsible for between 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in most cities and over 70 percent in large cities, including New York.
Citi includes several business units that have been serving public sector clients in this arena for more than two decades and, accordingly, bring significant knowledge to these efforts. Citi's commercial finance and leasing unit, CitiCapital, will work with cities and private building owners to significantly reduce their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by retrofitting existing buildings with energy efficient products and technologies, which can reduce energy use by 20 percent to 50 percent. Citi is also the market leader in municipal bond underwritings, proceeds of which can be used to retrofit public buildings and related activities.
"Climate change is a global problem that requires local action," said President Bill Clinton. "The businesses, banks and cities partnering with my foundation are addressing the issue of global warming because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's good for their bottom line. They're going to save money, make money, create jobs and have a tremendous collective impact on climate change all at once. I'm proud of them for showing leadership on the critical issue of climate change and I thank them for their commitment to this new initiative."
"We are excited to join the CCI Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program as a founding financial partner and welcome this opportunity to share our expertise and other resources to help cities around the world reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Steven Freiberg, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Citi's Global Consumer Group.
"Today's $1 billion commitment to CCI is part of Citi's efforts to target some $50 billion over the next decade to address global climate change. Given that buildings are the largest users of energy in urban areas, this expanded retrofit program through CCI promises to provide significant reductions in energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions from the participating cities," Mr. Freiberg added.
Citi's participation in the CCI effort builds on its extensive "green" project financing and investments already underway, as well as the company's efforts to make its own operations environmentally friendly. Citi has committed to reduce its environmental footprint and has pledged to a 10 percent reduction in its own greenhouse gas emissions by 2011.
Citi, through its CitiCapital unit, has developed an expertise in financing retrofit projects for more than 25 years, providing hundreds of millions of dollars of financing to such projects. It is a leader in municipal lease financings, with operations in North America and in every U.S. city involved in the CCI program. CitiCapital has implemented existing energy retrofit financing programs with municipalities and not-for-profit organizations in CCI targeted cities, including the Regents of the University of California in San Francisco as well as more than 30 municipal buildings in the City of New Orleans, LA, the State of Utah Department of Corrections in Salt Lake City, and Austin Community College in Austin, Texas.
In addition, CitiCapital is more than doubling its own commitment to facilitating the reduction of carbon-gas emissions and promoting sustainability by 2010. Its CitiCapital Energy Finance Unit has an existing portfolio of over $1 billion from underwriting energy efficiency upgrades for universities, local school districts, and various municipalities in the U.S., allowing clients to amortize the cost savings of improvement over a 15- to 20-year period generally without capital outlays.
Citi has long been active on environmental issues as evidenced by its initial and ongoing leadership in the development of the Equator Principles, which established best practices for assessing and mitigating social and environmental risks in project finance. Citi has also called for the development of global and U.S. frameworks that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, drive innovation and opportunity, bring clarity and certainty to the markets, and achieve a level playing field.
Citi's stock is part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good, both of which acknowledge leadership in setting standards in sustainable growth and in demonstrating exceptional environmental, social, and economic performance.
Citi, the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Citi's brand names include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Citi Smith Barney and Banamex. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.
Certain statements in this document are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements due to a variety of factors. More information about these factors is contained in Citigroup's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Citigroup Inc.
Media:
Christina Pretto, 212-559-9560
Michael Hanretta, 212-559-9466
Stephen Silverman, 212-793-0312
Source: Citigroup Inc.
Perot would not have existed as a candidate had "moderate" Bush 41 not raised taxes and signed gun control.
Funny how that works, you betray your base voters and you lose elections.
Yes, it's true.
From: http://www.forbes.com/2002/02/11/0211rubin.html
Rubin Red-Faced Over Enron? Not In The Times Mark Lewis, 02.11.02, 1:30 PM ET
NEW YORK - Just in time for Valentine's Day, The New York Times today delivered a remarkable front-page bouquet to Robert Rubin, in the form of an unusually generous assessment of the former Treasury secretary's attempted string-pulling on Enron's behalf.
The Times has been a bulldog on the subject of Enron's (otc: ENRNQ - news - people ) unsuccessful attempts last fall to stave off collapse by seeking help from its friends in the Bush Administration. But Rubin's role had been oddly de-emphasized by the Paper of Record.
More at the site.
I was thinking today, may blog about it: suppose the First Lady started a foundation that, say, financed charter schools (remember it's "for the children." At least, it used to be). And Halliburton kicked a billion dollars into it to get things going.
Do you suppose we'd hear about it?
Do you suppose we'd hear about it if any prominent current or former administration official "made calls" on behalf Enron?
Let me rephrase: do you think we'd ever hear the end of it?
They are a good example of a mass secular bureaucracy, and the Cl*nt*ns know how to work such organizations. Mass secular bureaucracies such as huge businesses operate according to a few abstract propositional ideals to the exclusion of all else, and are hence pathological. But everybody knows they are pathological, so they are perpetually on the defensive. That’s where the Cl*nt*ns come in. To save face in public, the company wants to look more human than it really is; ideally they would have a convenient stage prop they could to point to and say, “See how high-minded we are!” The Cl*nt*ns came knocking at their door with just such a solution.
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