December, 10 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Final PPP Data Reveals Oil, Gas, and Mining Scored Billions While Wind and Solar Were Left in the Cold
Analysis finds 70% of all oil, gas, mining sector corporations awarded ppp bailout.
WASHINGTON
New analysis finds that the Trump Small Business Administration's (SBA) flawed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been abused by fossil fuel and extractive corporations to rake in billions of dollars. In striking contrast, only 1,100 recipients in the wind and solar sector were awarded funds, while over 22,000 polluting extractive resource corporation cashed in after a review of SBA data.
"Actual struggling businesses that need pandemic relief are not getting it, while billions have flowed to oil, gas, and mining corporations and their wealthy CEOs. It's no coincidence -- but certainly a disservice to taxpayers -- that the clean energy wind and solar sector was awarded little in comparison to polluters from the Trump administration," said Jayson O'Neill, spokesperson for Accountable.US.
In total, 22,382 oil, gas, mining and related extractive resource corporations received a staggering $4,530,469,847 in taxpayer-funded monies through the PPP. In contrast, the wind and solar sector received a total of $164,987,228, going to some 1,133 businesses. The average loan amount was nearly 40% higher for extractive resource corporations as well.
Data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows that 31,992 private oil, gas, and mining establishments are currently operating in the United States, meaning 70% of all the entire sector received a PPP bailout, up 8% from a previous analysis by Accountable.US. In total, a new report by Bailout Watch finds that the fossil fuel sector may have received upwards of $15.2 billion from the Trump administration during the pandemic.
The renewable energy sector has struggled during the economic downturn, shedding almost half a million jobs. The Trump administration has ignored calls to invest in a cleaner energy future that would create millions of jobs, instead using taxpayer money to prop up many polluting corporations that were in deep financial trouble well before the pandemic.
Accountable.US has been tracking the administration's failure to get aid to those who need it most on its website, www.COVIDBailoutTracker.com, where the new SBA PPP data as well as all previously publicly released PPP data and additional CARES Act program spending is posted in a searchable format. The group will be analyzing the new data and releasing its findings on a rolling basis at the PPP Live Blog.
Accountable.US is a nonpartisan watchdog that exposes corruption in public life and holds government officials and corporate special interests accountable by bringing their influence and misconduct to light. In doing so, we make way for policies that advance the interests of all Americans, not just the rich and powerful.
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People of Gaza Thank US Students Demanding End to Israeli Bombardment
"We hope they add pressure on Israel and the U.S. to stop the bloodbath that is taking place in the Gaza Strip and to prevent the invasion of Rafah," said one university student.
Apr 29, 2024
Spotlighting the decimation of their own education system by the U.S.-backed Israeli bombardment of Gaza over the past six months, dozens of Palestinian children and young adults held a rally in Rafah on Sunday to thank U.S. college students for dissenting against their government at mass protests in recent weeks.
The children held signs reading, in English, "Rebuild our schools and universities" and thanking students and faculty at schools including Ohio State, Harvard, and George Washington University for their expressions of solidarity since April 17, when an encampment was set up on the grounds of Columbia University in New York City.
"We hope they add pressure on Israel and the U.S. to stop the bloodbath that is taking place in the Gaza Strip and to prevent the invasion of Rafah," said Bayan Al-Fiqhi, a university student who had to stop attending school when Israel began its bombardment of civilian infrastructure across Gaza in October, in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
Supporters of the U.S. protests also wrote messages of thanks on their tents in Rafah, where about 1.4 million Palestinian civilians have been forcibly displaced since Israel began its attacks.
"There is no way to express our gratitude to the student protesters in America other than writing a letter of thanks to them [on] the displacement tents," one man told the Turkish outlet Anadolu Agency. "We thank all the students who stood with us and expressed their solidarity as a result of the genocidal war taking place in Gaza."
On social media, Lebanese diplomat Mohamad Safa on Sunday also expressed thanks to demonstrators in Spain and Iceland for marching in solidarity with Gaza, where at least 34,488 Palestinians have been killed since October, two-thirds of whom were women and children.
Nonviolent protests by students at Columbia and others across the U.S. have been met with major shows of force by local and state police, with violent arrests caught on video at institutions including Emory University, University of Texas at Austin, and Indiana University.
As Columbia administrators suspended more than 100 students and summoned the police to arrest them on April 18, the United Nations issued a report saying that "with more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed, it may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as 'scholasticide.'"
Along with residential buildings and hospitals, Israel has included in its bombardment of Gaza more than 200 schools, with the enclave's last remaining university demolished in January when more than 300 mines planted by the Israel Defense Forces were detonated—prompting accusations that the attack was part of an ethnic cleansing campaign rather than self-defense.
"When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams," said the U.N. special rapporteurs on the right to education and on the situation in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. "These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society."
The protests at U.S. schools have escalated and spread across the country as Israel has indicated it plans to move ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah, where six women and five children were among nearly two dozen people killed in an airstrike on Sunday night.
Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid has also left parts of the enclave already facing famine and about 70% of the population of northern Gaza "experiencing catastrophic hunger," according to Human Rights Watch.
By continuing to permit police crackdowns on nonviolent protesters on campus as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza spirals, said former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis last week, "U.S. university administrators [are] committing moral suicide in public."
On Monday, Columbia University officials set a 2:00 pm deadline for students to disperse from the encampment set up on the school grounds after talks between student organizers and the administration failed to reach an agreement. Students have called on Columbia to divest from all financial holdings in companies that support the IDF—a condition president Minouche Shafik said the school would not meet—and have said they won't end the protest until it does.
Organizers at the Ivy League school called on students to help "protect the encampment" ahead of the deadline.
Over the weekend, hundreds of arrests were reported at Northeastern University, Arizona State University, and Washington University.
According to The New York Times, more than 800 people have been arrested at campus protests since April 18.
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"There is absolutely no reason for Biden to be involved in this," said one analyst. "But once again, Biden steps in to protect Netanyahu from the consequences of the war crimes he commits."
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly growing increasingly concerned that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for him and other top government officials for committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
The Times of Israelreported Sunday that the Israeli government, in partnership with the U.S., is "making a concerted effort to head off" possible arrest warrants from the ICC, which first launched its war crimes investigation in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2021.
Israel does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction and has refused to cooperate with the probe. The ICC says it has jurisdiction over Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
Citing an unnamed Israeli government source, The Times of Israel reported that "a major focus of the ICC allegations will be that Israel 'deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza.'" Other officials who could face arrest warrants are Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.
The Times of Israel's reporting came shortly after Israeli journalist Ben Caspit wrote that Netanyahu is "under unusual stress" over the possibility of arrest warrants and is leading a "nonstop push over the telephone" to forestall ICC action.
Like Israel, the U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC in 2002. The legal body is tasked with investigating individuals, not governments.
The U.S., Israel's leading arms supplier, has opposed the ICC's Palestine investigation from the start, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying in a 2021 statement that the court "has no jurisdiction over this matter" because "Israel is not a party to the ICC."
But the Biden administration vocally supported the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes committed in Ukraine, even though neither Russia nor Ukraine are parties to the Rome Statute.
Seeing commentary that ICC arrest warrants against Israeli officials would create a dangerous precedent because Israel isn’t a party to the Rome Statute.
Guess who else isn’t a party to the Rome Statute?
Russia.
ICC already crossed that bridge with warrant for Putin.
— Brian Finucane (@BCFinucane) April 28, 2024
The Israeli government has been accused of committing numerous war crimes in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas-led attack, including genocide, ethnic cleansing, and using starvation as a weapon of war. Late last year, the human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now submitted to the ICC the names of dozens of Israeli military commanders who are believed to have been directly involved in violations of international law.
Reports of potentially imminent ICC action have sparked alarm among conservatives in the United States.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on social media Friday that the court should "should stand down on this immediately."
In an
editorial published that same day, The Wall Street Journal suggested the U.S. and United Kingdom could "risk finding Americans and Britons under the gun" next if they don't warn ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan against issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials. Human rights organizations and legal experts have said Biden and other U.S. officials could be held liable under international law if they continue supporting Israel's war on Gaza.
"Mr. Khan's candidacy was championed by his native Britain and supported by the U.S.," continues the Journal editorial, "so both countries may have influence if they warn Mr. Khan of what will happen if he proceeds."
The Times of Israelnoted Sunday that according to reports in several Israeli media outlets, the U.S. is "part of a last-ditch diplomatic effort to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials."
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, argued Sunday that "there is absolutely no reason for Biden to be involved in this."
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Leaked State Department Memo: Israeli Assurances 'Neither Credible Nor Reliable'
"Today's leak should mark a final end to this impunity. President Biden has no choice but to fully enforce the law and halt aid to Israel."
Apr 28, 2024
A newly leaked internal memo shows that officials at four U.S. State Department bureaus don't believe the Israeli government's assurances that it is using American weaponry in Gaza in compliance with international law, rejecting them as "neither credible nor reliable."
The memo, first reported by Reuters on Saturday, is a joint submission from the State Department's bureaus of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Population, Refugees, and Migration; Global Criminal Justice; and International Organization Affairs.
The leaked document raises "serious concern over non-compliance" with international law, specifically citing the Israeli military's repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, refusal to investigate or punish those responsible for atrocities, and killing of "humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate," according to Reuters.
The memo also points to Israel's arbitrary rejection of humanitarian aid trucks, which has fueled famine in the Gaza Strip. The bureaus' conclusion matches that of officials at the United States Agency for International Development.
Human rights groups have been documenting Israel's atrocities and systematic obstruction of aid for months, but the Biden administration has continued approving weapons sales for the Netanyahu government despite U.S. laws prohibiting arms transfers to countries violating human rights and blocking American humanitarian assistance.
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said Saturday that "the State Department's leaked confirmation that Israel has restricted the transport and delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance leaves no doubt: U.S. law requires the suspension of military aid to Israel."
"For too long, the Biden administration has breached or ignored U.S. laws that require the suspension of aid to an abusive regime like Israel, fueling Israeli belligerence and rewarding its atrocities," said Whitson. "It's time for real consequences."
"Suspending military aid is the bare minimum the U.S. must do to avoid further complicity in these abuses."
In March, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant penned a letter assuring the Biden administration that the Israeli military's use of American weaponry has been in line with international law. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department subsequently indicated that the Biden administration has not found Israel "to be in violation of international humanitarian law," drawing outrage from analysts and members of Congress who say it is obvious Israel is committing war crimes. in Gaza.
The U.S. State Department is expected to deliver its final assessment of Israel's assurances to Congress in early May.
The written assurances from Israel were required under a White House policy known as National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), which has the ostensible aim of preventing "arms transfers that risk facilitating or otherwise contributing to violations of human rights or international humanitarian law."
NSM-20 states that "in furtherance of supporting Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378-1) and applicable international law," the U.S. will "obtain credible and reliable written assurances from a representative of the recipient country as the Secretary of State deems appropriate that, in any area of armed conflict where the recipient country uses such defense articles, consistent with applicable international law, the recipient country will facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance and United States Government-supported international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance."
Raed Jarrar, DAWN's advocacy director, said Saturday that "Section 620I has been rendered toothless by State Department inaction and special treatment for Israel."
"Today's leak should mark a final end to this impunity. President Biden has no choice but to fully enforce the law and halt aid to Israel," said Jarrar. "From bombing residential towers to blocking food and medicine, Israel's war on Gaza has been marked by utter disregard for civilian life and international law. Suspending military aid is the bare minimum the U.S. must do to avoid further complicity in these abuses. But it's an essential first step to show that even Israel is not above the law."
Details of the internal State Department memo emerged just days after Congress gave final approval to a foreign aid package that includes $17 billion in unconditional military assistance for the Israeli government.
In a joint statement on Friday, dozens of civil society groups warned that the newly approved military aid risks deepening U.S. complicity in an assault that has killed more than 34,000 people and put millions at risk of starvation.
"Not only does this supplemental aid package provide Israel with billions in lethal arms, it also provides the country with privileges above and beyond anything it has ever received, in particular for the war reserve stockpile and offshore procurement," the groups said. "The passage of the supplemental bill further risks U.S. complicity in grave international crimes committed by Israel."
"We urge the administration and Congress to uphold U.S. law and policy and international law by withholding the transfer of additional lethal military aid to Israel," they added.
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