WASHINGTON: The board of directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im) today approved a $917 million export finance guarantee to support U.S. exports from Bucyrus International, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and other U.S. vendors, to the Sasan Power, Ltd. coal-fired power plant in Madhya Pradesh, India.

The companies, including Bucyrus, will sell and export mining and associated equipment to Sasan Power for the 3,960-megawatt power plant. According to the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, the project will support approximately 1,000 jobs at Bucyrus and its suppliers throughout the United States.

Today's approval followed a thorough, three-month financial, technical and environmental due diligence review conducted by Bank specialists.

In July, Reliance Power, Ltd., the owner of Sasan Power, signed a memorandum of understanding with Ex-Im Bank indicating its commitment to build a new 250-megawatt renewable energy facility, which will rank among the largest renewable energy projects in India. Moreover, the Sasan project will comply with Ex-Im's new environmental guidelines that limit carbon emissions to 850 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour.

"The board's approval of the Sasan power project resulted from carefully balancing the need to support American jobs and energy exports, while simultaneously encouraging development of renewable energy facilities," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg. "We are pleased that Reliance Power, under the leadership of Anil Ambani, is taking steps to reduce the environmental effects of their activities and has long term plans which include power production with renewable energy alternatives."

In fiscal 2010, which ended last month, Ex-Im financing totaled a record $24.5 billion, supported an estimated $33 billion in export sales and 227,000 U.S. jobs. Its renewable energy transactions tripled and small-business export financing reached $5 billion, also all-time records.

Ex-Im, an independent, self-sustaining federal agency, provides export financing, strengthens U.S. export competitiveness, and helps create and maintain U.S. jobs. It functions at no cost to American taxpayers. The Bank provides a variety of financing products and services, including working capital guarantees to help small and medium-sized U.S. businesses, export-credit insurance to protect against nonpayment by foreign buyers, and loan guarantees and direct loans to assist foreign buyers of U.S. goods and services.