Trump’s Corrupt Interior Department Rewards Powerful Big Oil Lobby Group’s Wishes

The American Petroleum Institute Sent Wishlist of Favors to Former Oil Lobbyist Secretary Bernhardt 

In a breaking story today, the HuffPost released wish list a Big Oil lobby group had sent to Trump’s Interior Department. The American Petroleum Institute (API) sent letter to Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Bernhardt asking for taxpayer-backed bailouts and a smorgasbord of other requestsSecretary Bernhardt, a former oil and gas lobbyist whose powerful lobbying firm represents API, has already granted some of the group’s requests while the status of other requests is still unknown due to the Trump administration’s lack of transparency.  

Officials at Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency made headlines after granting the API’s request to suspend all environmental enforcement under the cover of COVID-19.  

Time and time again, President Trump has prioritized corporate welfare for the polluting fossil fuel industry over the 100,000 small businesses up and down Main Streets across America that have already closed for good and the thousands more teetering on the brink. One would be hard-pressed to find another sector in the U.S. economy that has requested and received more in taxpayer-funded bailouts and other giveaways from the Trump administration than Big Oil, said Jayson O’Neill, Western Values Project director. 

The known rewards for Big Oil granted by former oil lobbyist Sec. Bernhardt: 

 Read additional research from Western Values Project here. 

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