House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told the media yesterday it’s a good time to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), a top agenda items pushed by oil industry executives, perhaps President Trump’s biggest base of donors.
On International Nurses’ Day amid a global pandemic and an epic oversupply of oil, Hoyer made the remarks upon yesterday’s release by the House of Representatives of the next virus relief bill, the proposed $3 trillion ‘‘Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act.’’
The HEROES Act rightly includes elements of the Essential Workers’ Rights bill but wrongly excludes provisions from the ReWIND Act prohibiting payments to help bail out troubled oil executives and investors.
Hoyer compared the purchase of oil from indebted drilling companies to stocking up on personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers.
His comments came as America’s nurses’ union honored more than one-hundred nurses who have lost their lives from COVID-19 while caring for others, “because both hospitals and our elected officials have disregarded the safety of our nurses and failed to provide them with the optimal protection to do their job safely.“
Oil Change International‘s Collin Rees remarked, “Steny Hoyer’s crass comments show why the fossil fuel industry continues to clamor for a bailout to pay off its past bad debts — because leaders like Rep. Hoyer refuse to rule it out. Equating a bailout for Big Oil with basic protections for nurses and healthcare workers in a pandemic is completely egregious.“
Yet no one is dying due to an absence of oil, as petroleum supplies continue to overfill storage tanks across Texas and oil prices remain at record lows due to a global glut (and are expected to do so for the foreseeable future).
In fact, the world is awash with oil, and Hoyer’s approach only encourages more over-production.
The Production Gap Report of 2019 reveals that, “Governments are planning to produce about 50% more fossil fuels by 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 2°C and 120% more than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C.“
A forthcoming paper to be published later this month by the Stockholm Environmental Institute explains that fossil fuel production must decrease rapidly for the world to say below 1.5 warming, and doing it fairly means rich countries with more diverse economic options must be the first to keep their carbon assets buried in the ground before poorer nations with less economic options.
John Noël of Greenpeace USA said the HEROES Act fails to provide "the certainty that all relief will be steered to the front lines of the crisis and not to failing oil companies with direct access to the president."
Hoyer also echoed language used in last week’s letter to Trump by Senators from top oil-producing states, who claimed Wall Street’s big banks were “discriminating“ against fossil fuel companies by denying them credit.
Rees recapped what has to happen next: “House leadership must stand up for working people without throwing a lifeline to fossil fuel billionaires. That means including the provisions of the ReWIND Act in the next iteration of the HEROES Act and continuing to fight against Big Oil bailouts in future stimulus packages.“