Revealed: US fossil fuel companies handed at least $50m in coronavirus aid
Source: Guardian
Oil and mining firms some with ties to Trump officials taking advantage of funding meant for small businesses, review shows
Emily Holden in Washington
Fri 1 May 2020 08.16 EDT
US fossil fuel companies have taken at least $50m in taxpayer money they likely wont have to pay back, according to a review of coronavirus aid meant for struggling small businesses by the investigative research group Documented and the Guardian.
A total of $28m is going to three coal mining companies, including two with ties to Trump officials, bolstering a dying American industry and a fuel that scientists insist world leaders must shift away from to avoid the worst of the climate crisis.
The other $22m is being paid out to oil and gas services and equipment providers and other firms that work with drillers and coal miners.
Melinda Pierce, the legislative director for the Sierra Club, said: The federal money Congress appropriated should be going to help small businesses and frontline workers struggling as a result of the pandemic, not the corporate polluters whose struggles are a result of failing business practices and existed long before Covid-19 entered the public lexicon.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/01/fossil-fuel-firms-coronavirus-package-aid
Botany
(70,614 posts)Now if the money went to the laid off coal miners and those who work in the natural gas
(fracking) fields in the east and the midwest fine but this is just a pay off to the rich
coal/fossil fuel people who have supported Trump.
BTW the electric power plants have shifted from coal to natural gas and spent billions in
doing so and they aren't going back.
Bayard
(22,181 posts)Wish I could get that deal.
I am a small business, sole proprietor. But my understanding is that if I have no employees, I don't qualify for any loans, much less one I don't have to pay back. As a recruiter, I haven't made anything since the pandemic started. Very few companies hiring, and even less potential candidates willing to make a change right now.
But money going to oil and coal companies--that's a-okay. It would not surprise me to learn that McConnell is behind the coal company efforts to shore up his failing campaign in eastern Kentucky. Amy McGrath is spanking him.