Wis. manufacturer hopes White House intervenes after Congress-backed bank denies deal in India

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Wis. company hopes Obama intervenes in India deal

MADISON, Wis. — The chief executive of manufacturer Bucyrus International Inc. said Tuesday that he hopes President Barack Obama will intervene to save a $600 million international power plant deal put in jeopardy by a Congress-funded bank.

Bucyrus received cancellation letters from Reliance Power Inc., with which Bucyrus is building the coal-fired plant in India, shortly after the U.S. Export-Import Bank voted late last week to deny the project hundreds of millions of dollars in loan guarantees.

Losing the deal could cost Bucyrus and its manufacturers 1,000 jobs in Wisconsin and 13 other states, CEO Tim Sullivan told The Associated Press.

Sullivan said he hoped Obama would address the issue Wednesday during his town hall meeting on the economy in Racine, only about 15 miles from Bucyrus’ headquarters in South Milwaukee. Sullivan said he’s asked the Indian company to give Bucyrus until after Obama’s visit to possibly rescue the deal.

“I don’t understand politics,” Sullivan said. “I’m just a business guy who builds machinery. I don’t care what happens, I don’t care if I’m the bad guy, all I care about is that we don’t lose these jobs.”

A White House official said Tuesday that the bank is in discussions with the Indian company about its application and exploring whether it could be resubmitted with new information. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing talks.

Sullivan said he’s been in talks with officials from the bank, which promotes U.S. exports with loan guarantees, ever since its 2-1 vote on Thursday denying loan guarantees to Reliance Power, which runs the power plant and coal mine in India.

The bank’s decision effectively wiped out about $600 million in equipment sales from Bucyrus, a mining equipment maker. Losing that order could put about 300 jobs at the South Milwaukee plant in jeopardy, along with about 700 others at suppliers around the country, Sullivan said.

“I honestly think they’re trying to figure out how to do this, not just logistically but how to do this so as not to lose complete face politically,” Sullivan said of the bank.

The plant is under construction in Sasan, in central India, and is scheduled to be up and running in 2012.

The fossil fuel project was the first to come before the government-run bank since it adopted a climate-change policy to settle a lawsuit and to meet Obama administration directives.

A spokeswoman for the bank had no immediate comment Tuesday on the status of reconsideration of the vote.

Sullivan said he believes that the bank overstepped its own guidelines in judging the project and he hopes that it will reconsider the vote, even though there is no appeals process.

“It’s really kind of a mess,” Sullivan said.

The vote, which came just days before Obama was due in Wisconsin to discuss the economy, is garnering strong reaction in Wisconsin. Several prominent Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, Gov. Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a candidate for governor, along with U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have voiced their displeasure with the bank’s vote.

Feingold said in a letter to the bank’s president and chairman Fred P. Hochberg that denial of the loan guarantee won’t stop the project but could convince Reliance Power to turn to manufacturers outside the U.S. to get the equipment it was originally to receive from Bucyrus.

“At a time when our economy is only beginning to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression, it would be tragic to miss this opportunity for bolstering employment,” Feingold said.

Both Doyle and Barrett have said they hope to discuss the issue with the president during his visit to Racine. The United Steelworkers of America, which represents Bucyrus employees, is also urging the bank to reverse its decision.

Associated Press Writer Julie Pace contributed to this report from Washington.