updated Sat. February 10, 2024
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Huffington Post
December 9, 2016
Between 2008 and 2011, OPIC approved $217 million in “development” financing for Buchanan Renewables' biofuel project in Liberia. Instead of rejuvenating smallholder rubber farms and converting the old trees into biofuel, Buchanan Renewables perpetrated livelihood destruction, severe workerÃâà...
Stanford Social Innovation Review
November 8, 2016
A Buchanan Renewables worker injured when a tree fell on her as a result of poor safety precautions in Liberia. She still suffers and is unable to work today. (Photo courtesy of Accountability Counsel). Here at Accountability Counsel, we've seen first-hand how projects sold as impact investments can haveÃâà...
Front Page Africa
July 14, 2016
THE STORY WAS similar with the much-touted Buchanan Renewables, who with backing from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a little known U.S. government agency, received some US$217 million in loan approvals from 2008 to 2011to convert nonproducing rubber trees into biomass chipsÃâà...
Huffington Post
March 9, 2015
On a scorching day back in April 2013, among the ruins of a failed U.S.-backed development project, Liberian women gathered to tell their stories of sexual abuse and exploitation at the hands of Buchanan Renewables bosses. The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) approved $217Ãâà...
Electric Light & Power
January 28, 2015
On the ground in Liberia, Buchanan Renewables' CEO was James Steele, a larger-than-life former U.S. military figure and onetime Texas business partner of OPIC's then-president and CEO, Robert Mosbacher Jr. Mosbacher's father was Commerce secretary under President George H.W. Bush.
Mail & Guardian Africa
January 13, 2015
The formal complaint to OPIC, which has since withdrawn from the area, states: “OPIC, in violation of its social and environmental rules, failed to require an appropriate level of due diligence regarding [Buchanan Renewables'] operations in Liberia and did not take adequate action to stop or remedy theÃâà...
Yale Environment 360
May 23, 2011
Meanwhile, a Dutch-based company called Buchanan Renewables is turning millions of rubber trees that no longer yield resin into wood chips for sale to European power stations. The roads around the rubber plantations are covered with chips that have fallen off the trucks that head every 10 minutes or soÃâà...
IRINnews.org
June 18, 2010
Buchanan Renewables treads a careful line between profit and social responsibility. Most of the money for the project comes from a Canadian millionaire, John McCall MacBain, who made a fortune from classified advertising before selling his company and setting up a charitable foundation. His foundationÃâà...
AllAfrica.com
May 7, 2009
The salvage operation was carried out by Buchanan Renewables, a Geneva-based company which is building a 35-megawatt power plant to provide electricity to the capital and surrounding area. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a U.S. government agency, is providing U.S. $112 million inÃâà...
