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For Immediate Release
May, 01 2020, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Jayson O’Neill, Director
Western Values Project
jayson@westernvaluesproject.org
(406) 200-8582
Trump Grants Big Oil Lobby Association's Bailout Wish
Federal Reserve Decision Mirrors Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Request.
WASHINGTON
Yesterday, Trump's Federal Reserve opened the floodgates to big oil in a decision that will allow financially unsustainable oil and gas corporations to pay down their upside-down balance sheets with taxpayer-backed loan monies intended for small and mid-sized businesses. This decision adds to new data from Trump's Treasury Department and Small Business Administrations that revealed over one-third of all extractive resource corporations and related industries have been awarded some $3.9 billion bailout funds through the Payroll Protection Program.
The decision, which also doubles the revenue eligibility cap on Federal Reserve loans to $5 billion in annual revenue and expands employee caps to 15,000, mirrors the request the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) sent to the Trump administration two weeks ago. Several oil state senators followed the lobby association's lead with a similar request. IPAA is a former client of mega-lobbyist turned-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and has been exposed bragging and joking about their direct access to the administration.
"Big oil and their lobby arm IPAA are laughing all the way to the bank after the Trump administration handed them another blank check to shore up their upside-down balance sheets," said Jayson O'Neill, Director of Western Values Project. "Once again the Trump administration showed its true colors by serving up another taxpayer-funded bailout to its billionaire big oil corporate pals while ignoring needed help for American families and small businesses."
Western Values Project previously obtained this partial IPAA membership list, which includes the likes of Shell Oil Company and other big oil corporations, through a Freedom of Information Act request. These are not necessarily the 'small and mid-sized producers' the lobbying association tries to brand itself as representing.
Big oil corporations have spent nearly $377 million on federal lobbying since the start of the Trump administration and have showered Trump's campaign with $9.7 million in donations. It's already paid off. Seventeen oil and gas corporations reported $25 billion in direct, one-time benefits from Trump's 2017 tax cuts.
Accountable.US Action released updated information on TrumpBailouts.org about small business awards under the Small Business Administration's PPP. The database includes several corporations that are defined as 'Mining' by the federal government, which includes oil and gas corporations. Accountable.US Action has identified PPP bailouts totaling over $100 million that have gone to big oil, gas, coal, mining, and related industries.
Filings compiled by The Washington Post found that publicly traded corporations have received more than $1 billion in funds meant for small businesses. Nearly 300 public corporations, including 43 with more than 500 workers and several that pay top executives millions in compensation, have reported receiving bailouts through Trump's Small Business Administration.
The Trump administration and the Interior Department have been desperately trying to find ways to bail out big oil and extractive corporations despite the industry's boom-bust cycle and negative balance sheets. The Interior Department is also still plowing forward with oil and gas leasing, with leases often going for less than a cup of coffee, and major policy decisions despite repeated requests for a pause during the pandemic.
Learn more about the special interests fueling the Trump administration at Accountable.US and ongoing efforts to carve out more big oil, coal, and mining bailouts at WesternValuesProject.org.
Trump Administration Bends To Will Of IPAA, Highly Influential Oil And Gas Trade Association And Former Client Of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt
The Trump Federal Reserve Creates A New Type Of Loan, Granting IPAA's Request That The Fed Remove Rules Prohibiting Using The Funding To Pay Down Debts Incurred Before The Beginning Of The Pandemic
Two Weeks Ago, IPAA Asked The Federal Reserve To Change Its Borrowing Rules To Allow Its Members To Pay Down Their Existing Debt Using Main Street Lending Program Funding...
On April 15, 2020, The Independent Petroleum Association Of America Asked The Trump Federal Reserve For "Flexibility" On A Provision Of The Main Street Lending Program Barring Recipients From Using The Funding From "Repaying Other Debts." "The Eligible Borrower must commit to refrain from using the proceeds of the Eligible Loan to repay other loan balances. The Eligible Borrower must commit to refrain from repaying other debt of equal or lower priority, with the exception of mandatory principal payments, unless the Eligible Borrower has first repaid the Eligible Loan in full. IPAA asks that you consider providing flexibility on this provision to otherwise Eligible Borrowers, such as independent producers." [IPAA Letter to the Federal Reserve, 04/15/20]
The Federal Reserve Did Just That, Announcing They Would Offer A New Type Of Main Street Program Funding Allowing Borrowers To Refinance Any "Existing Debt" They Owe To Any Lender...
On April 30, 2020, The Federal Reserve Announced A New Type Of Main Street Program Loans Called "Priority Loans." "There will be a new type of 'priority loan' in which the Federal Reserve will buy 85% of the loan made by a bank, as opposed to the 95% the Fed will buy through its Main Street New Loan Facility and Main Street Expanded Loan Facility, announced earlier this month." [Washington Business Journal, 04/30/20]
This New Priority Loan Program Now Allows Borrowers To "Refinance Existing Debt" They Owe To Any Lender. "The Eligible Borrower must commit to refrain from repaying the principal balance of, or paying any interest on, any debt until the Eligible Loan is repaid in full, unless the debt or interest payment is mandatory and due. However, the Eligible Borrower may, at the time of origination of the Eligible Loan, refinance existing debt owed by the Eligible Borrower to a lender that is not the Eligible Lender. The Eligible Borrower must commit that it will not seek to cancel or reduce any of its committed lines of credit with the Eligible Lender or any other lender." [Federal Reserve Main Street Priority Loan Facility, 04/30/20]
- While The Federal Reserve's New Loans And Expanded Loans Programs Still Do Not Allow Borrowers To Repay Any Existing Debt. "The Eligible Borrower must commit to refrain from repaying the principal balance of or paying any interest on, any debt until the upsized tranche of the Eligible Loan is repaid in full unless the debt or interest payment is mandatory and due. The Eligible Borrower must commit that it will not seek to cancel or reduce any of its committed lines of credit with the Eligible Lender or any other lender." [Federal Reserve Main Street Expanded Loan Facility, 04/30/20]
IPAA Maintains Very Close Ties To The Trump Administration And Was Even Caught Secretly Boasting About Their "Direct Access" To David Bernhardt, Trump's Secretary Of The Interior.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt Used To Work For IPAA, And The IPAA CEO Said Of Bernhardt Being Of Interior, "That's Worked Out Well." "In that Ritz-Carlton conference room, [IPAA CEO Barry Russell] also spoke of his ties to Bernhardt, recalling the lawyer's role as point man on an [IPAA] legal team set up to challenge federal endangered species rules. 'Well, the guy that actually headed up that group is now the No. 2 at Interior,' he said, referring to Bernhardt. 'So that's worked out well.'" [Politico, 03/23/19]
IPAA's Political Director Bragged They Had "Direct Access" To Bernhardt In His Role In Trump's Administration, And Would Allow IPAA's Priorities To "Be Heard At The Highest Levels Of Interior." "Gathered for a private meeting at a beachside Ritz-Carlton in Southern California, the oil executives were celebrating a colleague's sudden rise. David Bernhardt, their former lawyer, had been appointed by President Donald Trump to the powerful No. 2 spot at the Department of the Interior. Just five months into the Trump era, the energy developers who make up the Independent Petroleum Association of America had already watched the new president order a sweeping overhaul of environmental regulations that were cutting into their bottom lines -- rules concerning smog, fracking and endangered species protection. Dan Naatz, the association's political director, told the conference room audience of about 100 executives that Bernhardt's new role meant their priorities would be heard at the highest levels of Interior. 'We know him very well, and we have direct access to him, have conversations with him about issues ranging from federal land access to endangered species, to a lot of issues,' Naatz said, according to an hourlong recording of the June 2017 event in Laguna Niguel provided to Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting." [Politico, 03/23/19]
Western Values Project brings accountability to the national conversation about Western public lands and national parks conservation - a space too often dominated by industry lobbyists and their allies in government.
LATEST NEWS
Report Details Trump's Rapid Escalation Toward Authoritarianism in First Year of Second Term
“We are all witness to a dangerous trajectory under President Trump that has already led to a human rights emergency,” said the leader of Amnesty International USA.
Jan 20, 2026
Exactly a year into President Donald Trump's second term in office, a leading human rights group on Tuesday released a report cataloging the administration's rapid escalation of authoritarian practices—and outlining the steps that can and must be taken in the US to halt Trump's attacks on immigrants and refugees, the press, protesters, and his political opponents.
Amnesty International's report, titled Ringing the Alarm Bells: Rising Authoritarian Practices and Erosion of Human Rights in the United States, details 12 interlocking areas in which the president is "cracking the pillars of a free society."
The group has documented human rights abuses and the patterns followed by authoritarian regimes around the world and has found that while the rise of autocratic leaders can happen within numerous contexts, the similarities shared by authoritarian escalations include the consolidation of government power, the control of information, the discrediting of critics, the punishment of dissent, the closure of civic space, and the weakening of mechanisms that ensure accountability.
Those patterns have all been documented in the US since January 20, 2025, when Trump took office for a second time.
“We are all witness to a dangerous trajectory under President Trump that has already led to a human rights emergency,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “By shredding norms and concentrating power, the administration is trying to make it impossible for anyone to hold them accountable."
The 12 areas in which Trump is eroding human rights and accelerating toward authoritarianism, according to Amnesty, include:
- Targeting freedom of the press;
- Targeting freedom of expression and assembly;
- Targeting political opponents and critics;
- Targeting judges, lawyers, and the legal system;
- Undermining due process;
- Attacking refugee and migrant rights;
- Scapegoating populations and rolling back non-discrimination policies;
- Using the military for domestic purposes;
- Dismantling checks on corporate accountability and anti-corruption measures;
- Increasing state surveillance; and
- Undermining international systems that protect human rights.
Amnesty emphasized that the authoritarian tactics are "mutually reinforcing," with Trump cracking down on protesters early in his term—targeting foreign-born students who had organized protests against Israel's US-backed assault on Gaza and revoking thousands of student visas, hundreds of which were revoked after the administration began monitoring foreign students' social media and accused visa holders of "support for terrorism" under a broad federal statute.
In recent months, Trump's attacks on refugees and immigrants have gone hand in hand with his militarization of law enforcement and targeting of First Amendment rights.
The president has deployed the National Guard and sent thousands of armed, masked federal agents into communities including Chicago; Los Angeles, Portland, and Minneapolis; in the latter city, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed a woman who had come out to help protect immigrants in her neighborhood earlier this month.
Masked agents have "seized migrants, asylum seekers, and US citizens" as they have searched for people to arrest to fulfill Trump's campaign pledge to ramp up deportations.
Those who have been detained are being held in facilities like Camp Montana East in El Paso, Texas, which recently recorded its third detainee death in less than two months, and "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida, where Amnesty last month documented treatment that amounts to torture.
The report also details Trump's attacks on the press, with the president hand-picking outlets that are permitted to cover the White House and barring the Associated Press from "restricted spaces" in the government building because of its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico by Trump's preferred name, the "Gulf of America." The Pentagon also demanded that journalists sign agreements waiving their First Amendment rights, resulting in reporters walking out and turning in their press badges, pledging to continue covering the Department of Defense without the administration's approval.
A White House official also aggressively attacked a journalist last week for asking about an ICE agent's killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, accusing him of being a "left-wing activist" who was posing as a reporter when he did not accept the administration's claims that the agent had shot Good in self defense.
The report also details the Department of Justice's efforts to investigate groups it deems "domestic terrorist" organizations" while moving toward classifying the filming of immigration arrests—a constitutional right—as domestic terrorism; Trump's weaponization of the DOJ against his political opponents including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey; his executive actions targeting law firms that represent individuals and groups that challenge the government, which resulted in some firms acquiescing; and his abandonment of due process, including through his "extraordinary" use of the Alien Enemies Act to expel hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers to an El Salvador prison known for torture.
"Trump's attacks on civic space and the rule of law and the erosion of human rights in the United States mirrors the global pattern Amnesty has seen and warned about for decades,” said O’Brien. “Importantly, our experience shows that by the time authoritarian practices are fully entrenched, the institutions meant to restrain abuses of power are already severely compromised.”
The report warns that "the Trump administration has moved swiftly—oftentimes outside the bounds of the law—to trample on rights and dangerously consolidate power," and calls on institutions to take decisive action to respond to the "alarm bells" detailed in the report.
"We know where this path leads, and we know the human cost when alarm bells go unanswered," reads the report.
Recommendations for the US Congress include:
- Strengthening guardrails against the domestic use of the military for law enforcement and prohibiting finding for "militarized protest suppression that violates human rights standards";
- Conduct oversight of discriminatory press restrictions;
- Pass legislation to develop national guidelines on respecting and facilitating the right to peaceful protest and for all law enforcement agencies to review their policies and the equipment used in the policing of demonstrations;
- Conduct oversight of immigration agencies including through "unannounced inspections of detention facilities and immigration enforcement"; and
- Decriminalize migration and establish a pathway to citizenship for people within the US.
The group also called on international leaders to continue scrutiny of human rights developments in the US, oppose US reprisals and sanctions against international courts and investigators, and mitigate humanitarian harms where US assistance is abruptly withdrawn by coordinating support for affected communities and frontline organizations.
Kerry Moscugiuri, interim chief executive of Amnesty International UK, called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "use every tool at his disposal to confront Donald Trump’s seemingly out of control anti-rights agenda."
"A year into Trump’s second term and it’s never been clearer: this is a pivotal point in world history," said Moscugiuri. "Starmer must also speak out on the US government’s support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Failure to oppose and stop the genocide has led us all to where we are now. Silence and inaction as the global human rights architecture is dismantled is not an option. Leaders across the globe must wake up to the world they seem to be sleepwalking into—before it is too late.”
O'Brien added that "authoritarian practices only take root when they are allowed to become normalized. We cannot let that happen in the United States."
"Together," he said, "we all have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to rise to this challenging time in our history and to protect human rights.”
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Trump Declares 'There Can Be No Going Back' as Denmark Deploys More Troops to Greenland
Asked if he would try to seize Greenland by military force, Trump responded, "No comment."
Jan 20, 2026
US President Donald Trump declared Tuesday after a call with the head of NATO that "there can be no going back" on his push to seize Greenland as Denmark deployed more troops to the island, amid widespread concerns that Trump could try to take it by military force.
In an early morning post to his social media platform, Trump said he agreed to a "meeting of the various parties" in Davos, Switzerland and reiterated his view that Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, "is imperative for National and World Security."
"There can be no going back—On that, everyone agrees!" the US president wrote. "The United States of America is the most powerful Country anywhere on the Globe, by far... We are the only POWER that can ensure PEACE throughout the World—And it is done, quite simply, through STRENGTH!"
Trump later appeared to leak text messages he received from French President Emmanuel Macron, who—according to screenshots posted by the US president—wrote to Trump: "I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland."
"Let us try to build great things," one of the messages reads.
Trump also posted a screenshot of a text message purportedly from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who wrote that he is "committed to finding a way forward on Greenland."
The developments came as the head of the Royal Danish Army and a "substantial contribution" of soldiers reportedly landed in Greenland to participate in multinational military exercises known as Operation Arctic Endurance. Germany, Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands, and Finland have also sent troops to Greenland in recent days.
Wielding the threat of economic warfare, Trump has demanded that European nations capitulate to a deal for "the complete and total purchase of Greenland" by the US. But the American president has also declined to rule out using force to seize the mineral-rich island, which Trump donors and allies have long been eyeing greedily.
Asked Monday whether he would try to seize Greenland by force, Trump replied: "No comment."
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Powell Gives Extraordinary Show of Support to Fed Governor Targeted by Trump
The president is trying to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud. Critics say he's targeting another one of his political foes.
Jan 19, 2026
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reportedly plans to attend Wednesday's US Supreme Court oral arguments in the case involving President Donald Trump's attempt to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook.
A "person familiar with the matter" told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Powell would attend the high court session in the face of Trump's unprecedented effort to oust one of the seven members of the Fed's governing board.
Last August, Trump announced his termination of Cook—an appointee of former President Joe Biden—for alleged fraud, accusing her of signing two primary residence mortgages within weeks of each other. An investigation published last month by ProPublica revealed that Trump did the same thing that he's accusing Cook of doing.
Cook denies any wrongdoing, has not been charged with any crime, and has filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s attempt to fire her. In October, the Supreme Court declined to immediately remove Cook and agreed to hear oral arguments in the case.
In what many critics allege is an attempt by Trump to strong-arm the Fed into further interest rate cuts, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier this month served the central bank with grand jury subpoenas related to Powell's congressional testimony on renovations to Fed headquarters in Washington, DC.
Powell—who was nominated by Trump in 2017 and whose four-year term as Fed chair ends May 15—responded by alleging that “the threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president."
"This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation," he added.
Trump is trying to install his puppets at the Fed.First by trying to fire Lisa Cook and rushing in his top econ adviser.Now by abusing the law to try to push Jerome Powell out for good.Next he'll nominate a new Chair—and Trump says “anybody that disagrees" with him is out.
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— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) January 15, 2026 at 7:54 AM
In addition to Cook, Trump has targeted a number of Democrats with what critics say are dubious mortgage fraud claims.
Last November, a federal judge dismissed a DOJ criminal case against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was charged with bank fraud and false statements regarding a property in Virginia. Critics called the charges against James—who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial crimes—baseless and politically motivated. A federal grand jury subsequently rejected another administration attempt to indict James.
The president has accused other political foes, including US Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Eric Swalwell—both California Democrats who played key roles in both of the president’s House impeachments—of similar fraud. Swalwell is currently under formal criminal investigation. Both lawmakers deny the allegations.
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