"The Trump administration mismanaged its efforts to provide relief to oil and gas producers during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, failing to ensure aid went to those that needed it, according to a new congressional report.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog office of Congress, said the government flouted its own goals when giving struggling producers a break this spring on payments to the government for oil and gas pumped from federal lands.

That royalty relief was supposed to go to wells that would have otherwise shut down because of the sharp decline in oil prices. The idea was to make sure that normally profitable wells were not plugged permanently because of the health crisis."

Dino Grandoni reports for the Washington Post with Alexandra Ellerbeck October 7, 2020. [2]