Congresswoman Barragan

The Trump administration is considering the creation of a lending program to provide money for U.S. oil producers, which have seen falling prices in recent days.

“One of the components we’re looking at is providing a lending facility for the industry,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Bloomberg News on Thursday.

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Democrats, meanwhile, have expressed opposition to giving assistance to the industry.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.) urged Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to “resist the fossil fuel industry’s calls for privileged treatment.”

“Using federal money to prop up the fossil fuel industry would only increase the financial toll of climate change and the environmental degradation it has wrought,” they wrote.  “The costs of inaction on climate change are already high, but continued investment in its root cause of fossil fuels will only drive those costs higher.”