Coal companies, some with ties to Trump, get $31 million in paycheck protection loans
Coal mining companies, including two with strong ties to the Trump regime, have received $31 million from the Paycheck Protection Program designed to help small businesses stay afloat and their workers employed while much of the economy is shut down as efforts are made to mitigate the health impacts of the deadly coronavirus pandemic. That, reports Ari Natter and Jason Grotto at Bloomberg, irks environmentalists who challenge providing loans to a dying industry whose toxic emissions kill thousands of people every year and add prodigious amounts of carbon dioxide to the already overburdened atmosphere, thus worsening the climate crisis.
Said Jayson O’Neill, director of the Western Values Project, a Montana-based conservation group: “The question is, is this a good use of taxpayer dollars when we have other businesses closing their doors? What is the long term viability of this industry? I would argue we should focus first on the small businesses that are in the most need.” But industry advocates call coal “absolutely critical” and a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association said that since it is afflicted with the same challenges as other industries, its “116,000 Americans directly employed at our nation’s coal mines” deserve to have their paychecks covered by the loans, too. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, however, the last time there were that many U.S. coal mine employees was 1992.
While the industry asks that it be treated like other industries, it hasn’t been. The Small Business Association, which is handling the distribution of the $659 billion that Congress has approved for loans, classifies coal, oil, gas, and minerals extraction companies as “small” if they have up to 1,500 employees instead of the standard 500. Bloomberg analyzed payroll data and found that the first round of PPP loans covered more than 78% of the industry’s eligible payroll compared to an average for all industries of 52%.
Having highly placed connections makes a difference:
Rhino Resource Partners: Based in Lexington, Kentucky, the 605-employee company received a $10 million PPP loan, the maximum allowed under the program. In 2017, Trump chose Rhino’s former chief executive officer David Zatezalo to head up the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/6/1943078/-Coal-companies-some-with-ties-to-Trump-get-31-million-in-paycheck-protection-loans