Save the last orcas! Tell the world’s largest banks not to fund pipelines

There are now just 75 Southern Resident Orcas left in the wild. 

Last week, there were 76.

These distinct endangered orcas are already on the brink, yet they’re facing another threat: the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.2

Today, barely a week after it was announced that one of the last remaining Southern Resident Orcas is presumed dead, Greenpeace USA released a new report documenting the communities, marine life, and about $62.4 billion in economic activity that are under threat from the increased tar sands tanker traffic the Trans Mountain Expansion Project would bring to the Pacific Coast.3

We released our new report from the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise as we travel the tanker route in the Salish Sea. These waters and the entire West Coast could see a seven-fold increase in tar sands tanker traffic if the project is built, creating a tar sands tanker superhighway and making a tar sands oil spill virtually inevitable. Even if these tankers never spill, the noise of the tanker superhighway alone could push the Southern Resident orcas to extinction.

This noise pollution and potential for spills further put these endangered orcas at the brink of extinction. Learn more about orcas and how we can save them in our new video!

And it’s not just the orcas that are at risk. The climate, the water, and Indigenous rights are also at stake. This pipeline expansion does not have the consent of many of the First Nations whose land this pipeline crosses and whose waters would be impacted by this project.

Thanks to public pressure, HSBC has scaled back financing for tar sands projects. Together, we’ve made this bank and others aware of just how risky these pipelines projects are — for all of us.

If there’s a spill, miles of beaches could be destroyed, including so many spectacular creatures, like orcas, whales and the world’s largest species of octopus. It’s too much of a risk to take.

Right now, I‘m on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise in the Pacific Northwest. We’re here to support the massive, Indigenous-led resistance to pipeline projects and the horrifying tactics of some of the companies that build them — like Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), whose private security contractors used pepper spray and attack dogs on peaceful Water Protectors and pipeline opponents at Standing Rock.

Together, we need to show ETP that its tactics of intimidation will not work; that new pipelines will not be built; that our Wave of Resistance is unstoppable. 

The last thing endangered orcas and the Pacific Northwest needs is new pipelines. Watch our new video about orcas and the Wave of Resistance and share with your friends!

- Rachel Butler, Tar Sands Campaigner, Greenpeace USA

1. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/orca-death-brings-southern-resident-whale-population-to-lowest-level-in-34-years/
2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/canada-oil-pipeline-expansion-killer-whales-kinder-morgan 
3. https://prod.greenpeaceusa.info/usa/reports/tar-sands-tanker-super-highway-threatens-pacific-coast-waters/

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