Pouyanne says the payment is "my money" coming back, not taxpayer funds
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, TotalEnergies
“my money that I gave in '22 to the Treasury, which is coming back”
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Canary Media report on legal questions surrounding the TotalEnergies settlement, including CEO Patrick Pouyanne's CNBC remarks and a former BOEM director's rebuttal.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Pouyanne spoke to CNBC at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, days after Interior announced the settlement agreement.
After the quotation
A former BOEM director, Elizabeth Klein, disputed the characterization, saying the lease payments became federal funds once TotalEnergies won the leases.
How this statement is classified
Responding to: The payment TotalEnergies is receiving is not taxpayer money but the return of funds the company itself paid to the Treasury for its leases in 2022.
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Pouyanne defends the payment's legitimacy by characterizing it as the return of the company's own funds rather than an improper use of public money, directly addressing the taxpayer-cost objection at the center of the Judgment Fund dispute.
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