The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline is nothing short of inspiring. But Wells Fargo is bankrolling this fossil fuel time bomb to the tune of nearly $500 million in loans.
What's happening at Standing Rock is about protecting our water and the climate. Pipeline guards are assaulting the native Sioux Tribe and their allies with attack dogs and pepper spray and local police are trying to jail journalists. But for the big banks who fund major polluters, it’s just business as usual.
Thousands have peacefully gathered to stop a 570,000 barrel-per-day pipeline that would endanger the ancestral lands of the Standing Rock Sioux. Investing in such major fossil fuel infrastructure would continue to lock us into a climate-busting carbon economy for decades -- but that’s exactly what Wells Fargo is trying to do.
Demand that Wells Fargo divests from the Dakota Access Pipeline now.
The DAPL was supposed to route near Bismarck -- but was rejected because of its proximity to municipal water sources. But for some reason, it was given a green light to put the Standing Rock Sioux’s ancestral water supply at risk.
While the courageous resistance at Standing Rock has captured the nation’s imagination, it’s also an astonishing example of how much power the banks have when it comes to our changing climate. $3.75 of the $3.8 billion it costs to build the pipeline is on credit. And we now know from Elizabeth Warren’s brutal evisceration at the Senate Hearing how Wells Fargo makes its money: by defrauding ordinary Americans. Without that capital, quite simply, there is no pipeline.
Stop the money, stop a pipeline. It’s that simple. Tell Wells Fargo to divest now.
What we are bearing witness to at Standing Rock is a moment of history. Thousands are literally putting their bodies on the line to keep our world, our water, our soil and our air safe. We can’t all stand up in solidarity in North Dakota, but we can make their jobs a whole lot easier.
We could feel that power when tens of thousands of SumOfUs members raised their voice and stopped the Keystone XL pipeline cold. It’s happening again -- let’s bring Wells Fargo to the right side of history.
More information
Food & Water Watch. 6 September 2016.
LA Times. 13 September 2016.