Pallone Blasts Trump Administration’s Efforts to Bail Out Oil Industry Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement in response to the Trump Administration’s efforts to include a multi-billion dollar bailout for the oil industry as part of a coronavirus stimulus package:

“This is a thinly-veiled attempt by the Trump Administration to use the coronavirus outbreak as justification for protecting the profits of its oil industry allies – and it is both unconscionable and unworkable.

“First, we have no need for $10 or $20 billion worth of oil, and with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve nearing capacity, we also have no place to store it all.  Second, this proposal has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic devastating the nation.  The oil industry’s financial straits are largely the result of its own machinations, including a ‘drill everything, everywhere’ mentality that has flooded the market with an overabundance of oil.  I refuse to put the American people on the hook for rescuing oil companies from a crisis that they themselves had a hand in creating.

“I stand by ready to help workers in this and every industry, but I will oppose any effort by this Administration to conflate our nation’s response to a pandemic with an oil industry bailout.  Working families and vulnerable populations deserve our undivided attention and resources right now, and that is who I intend to fight for.”

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