One of the major banks funding the Dakota Access and Bakken pipeline announced it may withhold its support over concerns for the treatment of the Standing Rock Sioux.
The bank, DNB, is Norway’s largest bank. It announced that it is now conducting its own “objective and fact-based” evaluation of how the Standing Rock Sioux’s rights are being treated. “If our initiative does not provide us with the necessary comfort,” announced Harald Serck-Hanssen, group executive vice president and head of Large Corporates and International in DNB, “DNB will evaluate its further participation in the financing of the project.”
DNB is one of a handful of banks out of a total 38 that has offered funding to all Energy Transfer entities, including direct loans to Dakota Access. Research shows that DNB bank loaned $120 million to the Bakken pipeline project and extended $460 million in credit lines to a handful of companies with ownership stakes, specifically Energy Transfer Partners, Sunoco Logistics, Phillips 66, and Marathon.
“It’s a testament to public pressure, and the strength of the native narrative, that the Norwegian bank is admitting to questioning its own involvement,” said Hugh MacMillan, the Food & Water Watch researcher who investigated and made public the names of the 38 banks funding the Bakken pipeline.
“We expect that Citigroup, Wells Fargo, TD Bank, Credit Suisse, and others are also uneasy. It’s important to know that Dakota Access is just the tip of the iceberg for many of these banks, when it comes to sinking billions on maximizing US production of oil and gas, in spite of climate science,” MacMillan said.
The statement from DNB, released Nov. 6, said: “DNB is concerned about how the situation surrounding the oil pipeline in North Dakota has developed. The bank will therefore use its position as lender to the project to encourage a more constructive process to find solutions.”
“We expect the companies and the responsible authorities to take a serious view of the situation,” it said.
The bank’s announcement comes nearly two months after an investigation by Food & Water Watch made public the 38 banks backing the controversial Dakota Access/Bakken pipeline. In the weeks following, YES! Magazine published the names and contact information of each bank’s CEO. Hundreds of thousands of people shared the article on Facebook, and it was reprinted widely in other media outlets, creating an organized phone and email campaign to protest the banks’ involvement. Around the nation, direct action campaigns at bank branches and headquarters have ranged from picketing to civil disobedience ending with arrests.
Banks reported being inundated with phone calls. Several CEO email addresses have been changed.
The Standing Rock controversy recently intensified as nearly 4,000 people have gathered in North Dakota to help the Standing Rock Sioux protect the area from pipeline construction. The pipeline is nearing the stage at which it would pass under the Missouri River, a drinking water supply for 18 million people.
Two weeks ago, as pipeline construction deadlines neared, the county sheriff organized militarized police from seven different states to confront the people there. The violence against unarmed protesters and the destruction of the camp on Oct. 27 has been replayed on Facebook feeds and network news ever since, intensifying public opposition.
The Bakken pipeline includes the 1,170-mile Dakota Access pipeline plus a 700-mile pipeline from the end of the Dakota Access, in Illinois, to refineries and export facilities in Texas.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.