Senate Power and Pure Assets Chairwoman Lisa MurkowskiLisa Ann MurkowskiGOP senators urge Saudi Arabia to go away OPEC Schumer: Senate ought to ‘discover’ distant voting if coronavirus sparks prolonged break Turning the virus right into a advantage — for the planet MORE (R-Alaska) despatched a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
Steven Terner MnuchinOvernight Well being Care: Trump resists stress for nationwide stay-at-home order | Trump open to talking to Biden about virus response | Fauci will get safety element | Outbreak creates emergency in nursing properties Mnuchin says Social Safety recipients will mechanically get coronavirus checks Lawmakers press IRS to get coronavirus checks to seniors MORE asking him to make sure that U.S. oil and gasoline firms can get federal loans offered for companies within the coronavirus stimulus package deal.
“There is no such thing as a query that one of many hardest hit industries — and some of the essential to Alaska — is the oil and gasoline sector,” Murkowski wrote in a letter shared Thursday. “Producing firms and the companies that contract with them are being impacted not solely by the market demand shock from the coronavirus, but in addition the Russia-Saudi Arabia energy wrestle in opposition to American power.”
Murkowski’s request will get at precisely what some Democrats feared: that oil firms may profit from the stimulus package deal.
Democrats had penned numerous letters expressing their opposition to any oil business bailouts, together with shopping for gasoline from oil firms, arguing a public well being disaster shouldn’t be used to contribute to local weather change.
The invoice in the end excluded the $three billion the Trump administration had requested to fund the acquisition of 77 million barrels of oil wanted to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Whereas different funds may very well be up for grabs, Mnuchin stated he had “very restricted capacity to do direct loans out of the Treasury,” he advised reporters at a White Home press briefing Thursday.
He stated they are going to work with the Federal Reserve to supply broad-based lending amenities.
“Our expectation is the power firms, like all our different firms, will be capable to take part in broad-based amenities, whether or not it is the company facility or whether or not it is the Predominant Road facility,” he stated.
