A group of nearly 40 Republican lawmakers on Friday urged the Trump administration to take actions against financial institutions that have shied away from financing certain fossil fuel projects.
In a letter to the White House, they claimed that policies against financing fossil fuel projects were discriminatory.
“We urge you and your Administration to use every administrative and regulatory tool at your disposal to prevent America’s financial institutions from discriminating against America’s energy sector while they simultaneously enjoy the benefits of federal government programs,” said the letter, which was led by Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.).
“Wall Street’s big banks, for example, should not be able to reap the benefits of participating in federally guaranteed loan programs laid out in the CARES Act, such as the Paycheck Protection Program or the trillion dollar … Federal Reserve facility lending programs, while simultaneously targeting American energy companies and workers, which again will be critical to our nation’s economic recovery,” they added.
President Trump has previously criticized the banks for withholding funds from certain fossil fuel projects.
After Sullivan, in an Oval Office appearance last month, accused banks of “starting to discriminate against American energy companies” and trying to “discriminate against investment in my state in Alaska,” Trump replied “I don’t like that.”
“I like the idea of looking into that,” Trump replied, adding that the banks were “pushed by the radical left.”
Banks and other institutions have cited investment risk and social responsibility as they have backed away from financing such projects.