Trump Admin Helps Fed to Bail Out the Oil Sector, Claims Energy Secretary.

Two top administration officials, at the direction of President Trump, helped the Federal Reserve alter its lending program intended to bail out small businesses specifically to aid mid-size oil companies, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told Bloomberg TV this week.

"Secretary Mnuchin worked very closely with the Federal Reserve ... and made that program available to what we refer to as mid-cap-sized companies," Brouillette said Tuesday. The Fed, which is legally prohibited from targeting specific sectors for relief, denied that it changed the emergency lending program in order to aid the oil sector. Oil and gas companies lobbied the Fed over the first weeks of the pandemic to ease eligibility requirements and use restrictions for the program, and the Fed altered its requirements in late April, a move praised by oil-state lawmakers and the oil and gas industry.

*title photo: Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette says that Secretary Steven Mnuchin, pictured, worked with the Federal Reserve to bail out mid-size oil companies.

13 May 2020

EcoWatch