Empty Promise: US Bank Continues Pipeline Finance
Empty Promise: US Bank Continues Pipeline Finance
Published by Oil Change International in partnership with Indigenous Environmental Network, Earthworks, Greenpeace, MN 350, and Rainforest Action Network, April 12, 2018
Following waves of pressure over the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), US Bancorp (US Bank) CEO Andrew Cecere won praise from Indigenous rights and climate advocates when he announced to shareholders in April 2017 that US Bank would stop financing oil and gas pipelines.
Despite this landmark commitment, over the course of the last year, US Bank supplied finance worth more than USD 2 billion to companies building oil and gas pipelines. An estimated USD 480 million of that total supported Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) – builder of DAPL and the very same company that motivated US Bank’s policy change.
Given US Bank’s continued financing of oil and gas pipeline construction, and the harm those pipelines cause for communities and the climate, US Bank should extend its policy to prohibit all financing to companies building oil and gas pipelines, and all other fossil fuel infrastructure that neglects Indigenous rights and is incompatible with achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.