How the U.S. used COVID-19 to bail out a failing oil industry — on the taxpayers' dime

As the early days of the COVID-19 crisis hastened the failure of the already floundering U.S. oil and gas industry, pandemic relief mechanisms like the Paycheck Protection Program intended to help small businesses were inordinately used to bail out big oil companies, says energy reporter Antonia Juhasz. In her research, Juhasz found that as much as $7 billion in PPP money went to oil and gas companies. But most problematic, she says, was the move to transfer oil company debt to the Federal Reserve through the investment company BlackRock. "Through BlackRock, you and I — the American taxpayer — are now owners in debt, through the Fed, of Exxon, Chevron, of Energy Transfer Partners, Phillips 66," says Juhasz. Instead, "we need to allow this industry to do what it would be doing on its own anyway, which is going away, because the world is trying — and succeeding — in moving away from this resource."

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