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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.
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Siding With NYT, US Judge Blocks 'Outrageous' Pentagon Press Policy
"It's unfortunate that it took this long for the Pentagon's ridiculous policy to be thrown in the trash," said one press freedom advocate.
Mar 20, 2026
A federal judge in Washington, DC blocked the US Department of Defense's widely decried press policy on Friday, which The New York Times and reporter Julian Barnes had argued violates their rights under the First and Fifth amendments to the Constitution.
The Times filed its lawsuit in December, shortly after the first briefing for the "Pentagon Propaganda Corps," which critics called those who signed the DOD's pledge not to report on any information unless it is explicitly authorized by the Trump administration. Journalists who refused the agreement turned over their press credentials and carried out boxes of their belongings.
"A primary purpose of the First Amendment is to enable the press to publish what it will and the public to read what it chooses, free of any official proscription," Judge Paul Friedman, who was appointed to the US District Court for DC by former President Bill Clinton, wrote in a 40-page opinion.
"Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation's security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech," he continued. "That principle has preserved the nation’s security for almost 250 years. It must not be abandoned now."
Friedman recognized that "national security must be protected, the security of our troops must be protected, and war plans must be protected," but also stressed that "especially in light of the country's recent incursion into Venezuela and its ongoing war with Iran, it is more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is doing—so that the public can support government policies, if it wants to support them; protest, if it wants to protest; and decide based on full, complete, and open information who they are going to vote for in the next election."
A spokesperson for the newspaper said that Friday's ruling "reaffirms the right of the Times and other independent media to continue to ask questions on the public’s behalf," adding that "Americans deserve visibility into how their government is being run, and the actions the military is taking in their name and with their tax dollars."
The Times had hired a prominent First Amendment lawyer, Theodore Boutrous Jr. of Gibson Dunn, who celebrated the decision as "a powerful rejection of the Pentagon's effort to impede freedom of the press and the reporting of vital information to the American people during a time of war."
"As the court recognized, those provisions violate not only the First Amendment and the due process clause, but also the founding principle that the nation's security depends upon a free press," Boutrous said. "The district court's opinion is not just a win for the Times, Mr. Barnes, and other journalists, but most importantly, for the American people who benefit from their coverage of the Pentagon."
Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, also welcomed the ruling, saying that "the judge was right to see the Pentagon's outrageous censorship for what it is, but this wasn't exactly a close call. If the same issue was presented as a hypothetical question on a first-year law school exam, the professor would be criticized for making the test too easy."
"It's shocking that this sweeping prior restraint was the official policy of our federal government and that Department of Justice lawyers had the nerve to argue that journalists asking questions of the government is criminal," Stern declared. "Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court called prior restraints on the press 'the most serious and the least tolerable' of First Amendment violations. At the time, the court was talking about relatively targeted orders restraining specific reporting because of a specific alleged threat—like in the Pentagon Papers case, where the government falsely claimed that the documents about the Vietnam War leaked by Daniel Ellsberg threatened national security."
"Courts back then could never have anticipated the government broadly restraining all reporting that it doesn't authorize without any justification beyond hypothetical speculation," he added. "It's unfortunate that it took this long for the Pentagon's ridiculous policy to be thrown in the trash. Especially now that we are spending money and blood on yet another war based on constantly shifting pretexts, journalists should double down on their commitment to finding out what the Pentagon does not want the public to know rather than parroting 'authorized' narratives."
The Trump administration has not yet said whether it will appeal the decision in the case, which was brought against the DOD—which President Donald Trump calls the Department of War—as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell.
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Eighty percent of Lebanese people killed in Israel's renewed airstrikes on its northern neighbor were slain in attacks targeting only or mainly civilians, a leading international conflict monitor said Friday.
Reuters, using data provided by the Madison, Wisconsin-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), reported that 666 people were killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon between March 1-16. As of Thursday, Lebanese officials said the death toll from Israeli attacks had topped 1,000.
While Lebanese authorities do not break down the combatant status of those killed and wounded during the war, Israel's targeting of civilian infrastructure, including entire apartment buildings, and reports of whole families being wiped out, have belied Israeli officials' claims that they do everything possible to avoid harming civilians.
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According to Gaza officials, 2,700 families were erased from the civil registry in the Palestinian exclave during Israel's genocidal assault.
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The February 28 US massacre of around 175 children and staff at an elementary school for girls in the southern city of Minab—which US President Donald Trump initially tried to blame on Iran—remains the deadliest known incident of the three-week war.
As Israeli airstrikes intensify and the IDF prepares for a possible ground invasion of southern Lebanon—which Israel occupied from 1982-2000—experts are warning that noncombatants will once again pay the heaviest price.
United Nations officials and others assert that Israel's intentional attacks on civilians are war crimes. Israel is the subject of an ongoing genocide case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
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As was the case during Israel's bombing of Gaza and Lebanon following the October 7, 2023 attack, journalists are apparently being deliberately targeted again. Reporters Without Borders said in December that, for the third straight year, Israel was the world's leading killer of journalists in 2025.
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“With global humanitarian needs already at record levels, further escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and wider region will have grave ramifications for crises across the world,” said one advocate.
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The US-Israeli war against Iran has unleashed a "triple emergency" that is draining the global humanitarian aid system of resources and putting millions of the world's most vulnerable people at even greater risk, according to a dire warning issued Friday by the International Rescue Committee.
The war has already resulted in the deaths of thousands and the displacement of millions of people in Iran and Lebanon. But the IRC says that the ripple effects of the war are beginning to spread to conflict zones across the world.
The conflict has caused many nations in the region to partially or fully close their airspace, leaving critical cargo stranded.
Meanwhile, Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks has disrupted the flow of more than 20% of the world’s oil exports, sharply raising transport costs and straining budgets that could go toward lifesaving aid.
“Medical aid is highly dependent on international transport,” said Willem Zuidema, Save the Children’s global supply chain director. “The blockage in the Strait of Hormuz, combined with spiking cost for insurance and fuel, is directly impacting patients in our health facilities, at the worst time possible.”
IRC said $130,000 worth of pharmaceutical aid intended for its humanitarian response to the conflict in Sudan has been left stranded in Dubai due to the strait's closure.
According to Save the Children, this delay has put 90 primary healthcare facilities across Sudan at risk of running low on supplies.
More than 400,000 children, the group estimated, could be affected by the inability to receive antibiotics, antimalarial drugs, pain and fever medications, and other treatments.
The group said it has been forced to deliver the aid using the much more costly method of transporting it across Jeddah, where it will be carried by sea freight to Sudan, which the group said could add as much as $1,000-2,000 per container.
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