April, 15 2019, 12:00am EDT
At Annual Meetings, Banks and Oil Companies to Face Questions About Arctic Drilling
Pressure is Mounting from Shareholders and Activists to Pledge to Stay Out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
WASHINGTON
As major financial institutions and oil companies prepare to gather for their annual general meetings this spring, they're facing growing pressure from shareholders and activists to commit not to engage in or give financial support for drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Trump administration plans to hold the first lease sale in the coastal plain as soon as this summer. But some of the world's most significant investors have warned against leasing in the refuge, citing reputational risk to companies or banks associated with destroying this iconic landscape and threatening the human rights of the Gwich'in people, who have relied on the land and wildlife there for their survival and way of life for thousands of years.
Already, a plan by SAExploration to conduct destructive seismic testing for oil -- the first step toward drilling -- has been delayed by as much as a year after a powerful public backlash and fear of litigation set back the administration's permitting process. As a result, any oil company that participates in a lease sale this summer will be bidding blind, without information about what they're buying or whether there might be oil under the 1.6 million acres of the coastal plain.
Campaigns targeting oil majors BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, as well as top American banks including Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley will be making their demands known at their meetings throughout April and May.
"Major banks and oil companies will be hearing from the public and their shareholders loud and clear that the Arctic Refuge is no place for drilling," said Sierra Club Campaign Representative Ben Cushing. "Pursuing drilling in this unique wilderness would be bad for the environment, bad for human rights, and bad for their bottom line. The public is watching and demanding that these companies commit to staying out of the Arctic Refuge."
"Drilling in the Arctic Refuge would permanently destroy the primary food source of the Gwich'in people, our culture, and our way of life," said Gwich'in Steering Committee Executive Director Bernadette Demientieff. "The Trump administration may not care, but the American people do, and they do not want to see this sacred place ruined. Any oil company or bank that supports this destruction will have to answer to the Gwich'in and to the millions of Americans who stand with us."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
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Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
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"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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