Tell banks to defund tar sands pipelines like Trans Mountain (Dakota Access Pipeline North)

The movement to protect Indigenous rights and the environment needs your support today.

There’s a fight brewing.

The issue: A tar sands pipeline called Trans Mountain — otherwise known as Dakota Access Pipeline North.

On one side: Indigenous peoples, local communities, and environmentalists. On the other: Oil giant Kinder Morgan and big banks.

We’ve teamed up with a coalition of Indigenous organizations and environmental groups in a joint petition to banks. Tell banks: defund tar sands pipelines like Trans Mountain.

First Nations and Indigenous tribes including the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, the Coldwater Indian Band, and the Squamish Nation (whose lands are located along the route of Trans Mountain in Canada) have not given their consent for the pipeline. The pipeline threatens their land, water and and sovereignty.

Their fight is similar to that of the Standing Rock Sioux, who activated thousands of people to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline.

tragic night for the Standing Rock Water Protectors

Banks like Citi are regretting their investments in the Dakota Access Pipeline. Citi chairman Mike O’Neill even said “We wish we could have a do-over on [the Dakota Access Pipeline].” Now is the chance for a do-over — banks must avoid funding Trans Mountain.

Tell banks like Citi: don’t get involved in financing the disastrous Trans Mountain pipeline.

Kinder Morgan is paying for Trans Mountain in two ways: selling shares of the pipeline and other Canadian assets and attempting to secure C$5 billion of credit specifically to fund Trans Mountain.

14 banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, are selling shares of the pipeline (and pocketing a big commission in the process). But there’s still time to stop them from giving Kinder Morgan a credit card for the remainder of the money.

Other banks like Citi, Wells Fargo, and BNP Paribas are current lenders to Kinder Morgan but haven’t yet committed to specifically lending to Trans Mountain.

Banks already faced massive resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Let them know they will face the same fight against Trans Mountain.

Tell banks to respect the the environment and the humanity and rights of Indigenous peoples.

The stakes are higher than ever. Trump announced the U.S. will be pulling out of the Paris Accords, a global agreement to stop climate change. We can't count on a government motivated by corporate greed and white nationalism to protect people and planet.

To curb global warming, we must get banks to stop funding tar sands projects — one of the dirtiest types of oil on the planet. We must protect our air and water from the shortsighted greed of fossil fuel corporations.


All of us who believe in a better world for our children must come together and send a powerful message to banks: stop banking on climate change and violations of human rights.

- Jason Opeña Disterhoft
Rainforest Action Network


Sources:

1. B.C. First Nations unite in fight against Trans Mountain pipeline, The Globe and Mail
2. Citi meeting protest prompts apology on pipeline finance steps, Reuters
3. Final long form prospectus - English, Kinder Morgan Canada Limited, p. 7