BLM
As our country deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re all coming to grips with constant uncertainty. It can often feel like we’re living in a totally different world from the one we’re used to. Unfortunately, there’s one thing this public health crisis hasn’t changed: Propping up corporate polluters remains Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ number one priority.
As lawmakers debated the details of recovery efforts to support communities during this crisis, the White House and Senate Republicans floated numerous plans to bail out oil and gas companies, including a proposal to prop up oil prices by spending billions of taxpayer dollars on 30 million barrels of oil to fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). That’s billions of dollars that could help support vulnerable communities that they wanted to give to dirty energy companies instead.
Trump and Senate Republicans may have thought that they could sneak through this handout to Big Oil without the public noticing, but our communities showed up in a big way to make sure any aid package supported people, not polluters. Sierra Club members and supporters sent more than 39,000 messages to their senators urging them not to allow any bailouts for corporate polluters to move forward, and we were successful! This week, Congress passed a stimulus package that, though there’s still more work to be done, will provide critical health and economic relief to those who need it most -- without including the SPR oil bailout.
This week, we reminded the Trump administration and congressional Republicans that the public is watching and that we won’t allow them to sneak through handouts for their corporate polluter friends during this crisis. This was an important victory, and we need to keep the pressure on to hold the administration accountable and ensure that other funds in the aid package don’t go to Big Oil.
Meanwhile, as Trump’s EPA uses this crisis as an excuse to suspend enforcement on environmental laws, the Department of the Interior is barrelling ahead with auctions. They’re selling our public lands to oil and gas companies at rock-bottom prices while the nation’s attention is focused on keeping families healthy and safe. That’s why the Sierra Club joined dozens of partner organizations in sending a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt urging him to suspend these auctions while the nation deals with this crisis.
We’re also fighting back against oil companies like TC Energy -- the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline -- that are recklessly pushing forward with construction activities on dirty oil pipelines despite the threat to local communities. TC Energy is planning to bring in thousands of out-of-state workers to build man camps along the Keystone XL route, potentially leading to the spread of COVID-19 among them and the nearby rural communities, which have little access to healthcare. But we’re standing with local landowner and Tribal groups to ensure this dangerous activity doesn’t move forward.
These are scary and uncertain times, and the last thing our communities need is more pollution from the oil and gas industry. We’re staying vigilant and fighting Trump’s sneaky polluter handouts at every turn.