By Read part 1 of this 2-part blog here.
JPMorgan Chase has had quite the last few weeks.
Over 3,000 RAN members and allies called the company to tell them to defund tar sands and to cut ties with TranCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline.
And yet, late last Friday, JPMorgan Chase and 18 other banks renewed their support for TransCanada by extending two credit facilities totalling $1.5 billion. See last week’s blog for more background on these loans. Each loan was extended for another year. Despite the lip service they’ve given in the past about support for Indigenous rights and alignment with the Paris Accord and climate stability, the banks continued business as usual. The list of banks on the loan stayed exactly the same; none took advantage of this opportunity to decline support for TransCanada.*
As the lead bank on both of these loans, JPMorgan Chase continues to provide TransCanada with the money it needs for its business, including its headline project, Keystone XL. This is unacceptable — but we knew this fight wouldn’t be easy.
JPMorgan Chase is a leading funder of TransCanada and the #1 Wall Street bankroller of tar sands oil, one of the dirtiest fossil fuels on the planet. They are the biggest bank on Wall Street, and their investments in tar sands and extreme fossil fuels run deep. It’s going to take sustained people power and continued actions from this incredible network to move this corporate giant away from fossil fuels and towards honoring Indigenous rights and climate stability. Persistence is how we win.
Since the Nebraska decision that re-routed TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, 300,000 people from a broad coalition have sent direct communications to the banks against the pipeline and almost 45,000 people have signed the petition to JPMorgan Chase demanding the bank stop funding TransCanada.
On top of all that, on December 7 a small group of water protectors made their way to The Plaza Hotel in New York City to the Wells Fargo Thought Leadership Forum, an exclusive gathering of over 1,000 of the world’s largest investors. The water protectors attempted to deliver the petition with your signatures to Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s CEO. These peaceful activists disrupted the event and were forcibly ejected — but our collective message was heard loud and clear: No KXL. Defund tar sands.
When more than 2,000 of you called JPMorgan Chase’s head business office and customer service line, here are some of the things you said:
- “I had been a Chase customer since 1964, but closed my accounts because of their addiction to funding the non-sustainable fossil fuel industry.”
- “I no longer use my Chase credit card and have advised my financial advisor to take out my investments with JPMorgan. I was trying to say this when I was cut off!”
- “I encouraged funding for green energy as opposed to tar sands.”
We’re going to have to keep speaking up, because this fight to stop the KXL pipeline is far from over. TransCanada is expected to make their final investment decision this month, formally deciding whether or not to move forward on the project — read more about what that means here. RAN intends to intervene at every key financial decision point and demand that JPMorgan Chase cut ties with TransCanada and end funding for tar sands.
Thank you for taking action to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and to defund tar sands. We cannot do this work without you.
*Here’s the list of the 19 banks that just extended $1.5 billion in loans to TransCanada:
- JPMorgan Chase: the leading bank on both loans
- Bank of America
- Bank of Montreal
- Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
- Barclays
- Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
- Citi
- Credit Agricole
- Credit Suisse
- Deutsche Bank
- Export Development Canada
- HSBC
- Mizuho
- National Bank of Canada
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Scotiabank
- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
- Toronto Dominion Bank
- Wells Fargo
Source: Bloomberg Professional Services
