Fossil fuel company made out like bandit from last year ’s government bailout . Now , new data shows that with child name in the industry pose off tens of thousands of workers last twelvemonth while fill out their bank account with public money .
In anew analysisout Friday , BailoutWatch , a nonprofit watchdog group , fit up the benefits fogy fuel companies received from the CARES Act pass last year . The chemical group found that well-nigh 80 fossil fuel company , including some of the world ’s vainglorious names in oil and gas pedal , snag more than $ 8 billion dollars in Union discount . And that money did n’t seem to reach the actual doer in the diligence : Documents collected by BailoutWatch show most of those same companies laid off nearly 60,000 people last year .
If you ’ll call back , the oil and gas industrywas in a paniclast spring asdemand for fuel plummetedwith the start of the pandemic . Then - President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans unsuccessfully lobbied for a specific bailoutjust for the industry , arguing they were concern over jobs .
The Marathon Petroleum Corp. refinery in Detroit.Photo: Paul Sancya (AP)
https://gizmodo.com/big-oil-is-a-big-loser-of-money-but-also-life-1846585681
“ I have apprise the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important troupe and jobs will be secured long into the futurity ! ” Trump squeeze last April . Oil magnate and Trump consultant Harold Hamm , meanwhile , toldthe Washington Postthat he was speaking to the chairwoman on “ how [ the pandemic ] could jeopardize … job and the saving in [ fogy - fuel ] bring forth states and communities across America , from Pennsylvania to California and Texas to North Dakota . ”
While this diligence - specific funds never panned out , the structure of some of the CARES Act ’s tweaks to the taxation jurisprudence — which were intended by lawmakers to help company bleed immediate payment retain prole — created a few loopholes . Two in exceptional ended up being a boon for the dodo fuel manufacture . One permit companies cancel old age ’ tax loss , and another that let them take tax credits early . Both father millions of dollars for oil companies , BailoutWatch found .
“ Most of these programs were addressed to the larger economy to support businesses large and small during the economic downswing , ” enunciate Chris Kuveke , an psychoanalyst at BailoutWatch . “ Where oil colour and flatulence profit disproportionately was in the tax blank . These benefit were aim at company that had been profitable in the past 10 , but then suffered significantly since 2018 . If you search at what ’s bechance to petroleum since 2018 , it ’s had a terrible three years . The tax provender countenance companies that had been profitable but suffered even before the pandemic , which is very unique to the crude and gas place , to benefit from massive infusions of direct capital . ”
BailoutWatch analyzed what ’s called a Form 10 - K , a revenue enhancement document that the Securities and Exchange Commission demand freehanded companies to complete each yr , to liken the issue of prole inscribe at the terminal of 2019 to the end of 2020 . They then compared those number to the total amount of bailout money each company had received through the taxation break , which they ’d calculated in areport issued last year .
The numbers are pretty outstanding . Marathon Petroleum have more than $ 2 billion in tax benefits from the CARES Act , yet laid off more than 1,900 of its worker — a 9 % cut to its payroll . The SEC filing show that 880 of the workers laid off were cut through by a corporate bargaining accord — aka , were in a union . ( The companytold The Guardianit had to make “ the very difficult determination ” to cut lieu , and gave healthcare and benefits to those laid off . ) Occidental Petroleum , meanwhile , got $ 195 million in rebates , but still lay off 2,600 people , an 18 % cut .
Seven of these company , the analysis finds , direct benefited from a specific program designed to keep workers on paysheet — and yet still set folks off . Houston - base U.S. Well Services , an oilfield services party , got a $ 10 million loanword from the Small Business Administration ’s Paycheck Protection Program . Yet its SEC filings show it still lay off 233 worker , a more than 25 % cut . The caller did n’t respond to an question about this loanword . Not all companies take this route ; a Houston Chronicle analysispublished last yearshowed those loans saved tens of K of jobs in Texas .
You may be wondering , as I am — where did all this money go , if not to keep people apply ? It ’s a practiced question , and one that Kuveke said we may learn more about as troupe continue to free tax document .
“ Marathon , for example , had $ 10 billion in going in 2020 , so some of this money sure as shooting went to the ship’s company to maintain payroll department for the hoi polloi they did keep on — they employ ten of thousands of citizenry , ” he said . “ But they also opt to maintain other , more questionable syllabus , like their dividend programs for investor and administrator recompense . ”
Kuveke articulate that there are other welfare for powerful employee , like the use of secret jets and executive bonuses , that may be hidden in proxy statement that could come to lightness with further digging . And we should do a short bite more dig . This is public money . Moreover , crude oil companies wield howling power over our political scheme , which is in part how they ’re able-bodied to take reward of loopholes like this .
“ This CARES Act was predominantly set up to stand the thriftiness and maintain employment , and it ’s very clear that the investment firm these caller received were not exclusively used to maintain paysheet — they were used to do good executive and shareholders , ” Kuveke said . “ I do n’t retrieve people would be very well-heeled love that that ’s what their tax dollars are choke to . ”
Correction 4/2/21 10:54 AM : This art object has been updated to correct a quote from Chris Kuveke , who said that oil troupe chose to maintain programs for executive recompense , not investor recompense .
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