President Trump said Tuesday that he instructed his administration to “make funds available” to oil companies that are reeling after the U.S. oil price fell below zero for the first time in history.
“We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down,” Trump tweeted. “I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!”
We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down. I have instructed the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a plan which will make funds available so that these very important companies and jobs will be secured long into the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020
Trump appeared to be reiterating previous requests he’s made of Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who have already said that oil companies can make use of programs in the CARES Act, the phase three coronavirus response bill passed by Congress.
Mnuchin said earlier this month that oil companies can apply for loans from special lending facilities to be set up by the Federal Reserve.
Mnuchin said he has “very limited ability to do direct loans out of the Treasury,” which he can only distribute to airlines and national security companies but added that energy companies can apply for the Fed’s economy-wide lending program.
“Our expectation is the energy companies, like all our other companies, will be able to participate in broad-based facilities,” Mnuchin said.
Still, the Trump tweet is a shift in tone from Monday, when he downplayed the problem of subzero oil prices and seemed resistant to pull new policy levers even as oil-state Republican senators pressed for action.
“Nobody has ever heard of negative oil before, but it’s for a short term,” Trump said during his nightly briefing on the coronavirus. “So if you take a look at it, you’ll see it’s more of a financial thing than an oil situation.”
Trump seemed to portray the oil price crash as a demand problem that he or any policymaker has little control over, a sentiment most energy analysts agree with.
“The problem is nobody is driving the car anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “Factories are closed, and businesses are closed.”
