#divest dapl

In an act of international solidarity between indigenous peoples, the Sami parliament in Norway has persuaded the country’s second largest pension fund to withdraw its money from companies linked to a controversial oil project backed by Donald Trump.

The project to build the 1,900km Dakota Access oil pipeline across six US states has prompted massive protests from Native American activists at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

This week, after lobbying by the Sami parliament, Norway’s local authority pension fund KLP announced it would sell of shares worth $58m in companies building the pipeline.

Vibeke Larsen, president of the Sami parliament, said the pension fund announced the move when she arrived at a meeting in Oslo to discuss Dakota Access.

“We feel a strong solidarity with other indigenous people in other parts of the world, so we are doing our part in Norway by putting pressure on the pension funds,” she told the Guardian.

The Sami – sometimes called Lapps in English – are an indigenous people living in the Arctic area of Sápmi in the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia’s Kola peninsula.

Norway’s largest private investor is divesting from three companies tied to the Dakota Access pipeline, a small victory for the Standing Rock movement one week after the eviction of the main protest encampment.

Storebrand, a sustainable investment manager with $68bn in assets, sold off $34.8m worth of shares in Phillips 66, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, and Enbridge, the company announced Wednesday. The three companies are partial owners of the pipeline.

“We hope that our actions and the actions of other likeminded investors in either divesting or calling for an alternative [pipeline] route will make some sort of an impact,” said Matthew Smith, the head of Storebrand’s sustainability team.

What Now: DIVEST

The Dakota Access Pipeline and Keystone XL Pipeline have been resurrected. This means we must organize and activate to combat and resist this dangerous administration.

What I’m doing - contacting my banks asking directly if they use my money to fund pipeline projects. Paying off my loan with Chase Bank *consolidating through a low interest check from Discover Card- in a response from Michael Ristano, from Discover's Executive Office of Customer Advocacy, I was assured "Discover Card does not have investments related to the pipeline.". If they are involved with funding I will borrow money to pay everything off and set up a fair payment plan locally. (Mom? Successful local business?)

The real leaders of this country already deemed both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines unnecessary threats which should not be completed. But yesterday, with the swipe of a pen Donald Trump signed two actions reviving the dangerous projects. They threaten clean water and environmental health as we go forth in a world that is experience climate change regardless of the ignorance the current administration accepts.

“President Trump is showing that he’s in the pocket of big corporations and foreign oil interests,” said CREDO Deputy Political Director Josh Nelson. “Approving these dirty oil pipelines would poison American air and water, supercharge climate change and trample Native American rights,” Nelson continued. “Fierce grassroots activism has stopped these pipelines over and over again,” he added. “CREDO will do everything in its power to stop the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, and keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground where they belong.”

“We will be taking legal action, and will take this fight head on,” said Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in a press release, after leaders emerged from their morning meeting. “Today, Trump announced an executive order on DAPL; it not only violates the law, but it violates tribal treaties. Nothing will deter us from our fight for clean water.” -motherboard.vice.com

Why the Dakota Access pipeline’s project is invalid, and who we should REALLY be listening to (THE ARMY): “In December… the Army said it would not – for the time being – allow the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe. The Army said the plan should be carefully restudied, and alternative routes should be deeply considered. In her letter to the Army Corps, Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army’s assistant secretary for civil works, called for the creation of an official environmental impact statement, a monthslong process that would allow the public to weigh in.” -CNN.com

Why the Keystone XL pipeline’s project is invalid, and who we should REALLY be listening to (EDUCATED POLITICIANS): “In 2011, the Obama administration said it would delay a decision on the pipeline until at least 2013 to allow for more time to study the issues and to look at possible alternative routes. Exercising his veto power for the first time in five years, Obama rejected legislation giving the go-ahead for construction of the pipeline in February 2015. The White House said then it opposed the bill because it would have usurped the President’s authority to approve or deny the creation of the pipeline and short-circuit the State Department analysis. In November 2015, Obama nixed the proposed pipeline, virtually ending the fight over the project that had gone on for much of his presidency. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry concluded the project was not in the country’s national security interest.” -CNN.com

YOU CANT EAT MONEY AND YOU CANT DRINK OIL

DIVEST According to Ruth Hopkins, a former judge for the Spirit Lake Nation and Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, People are mobilizing by removing funds from banks with connections to the Dakota Access Pipeline “to the tune of more than 50 million dollars currently,” Trump owns stock in Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the pipeline.

Chase Bank, a corporate sponsor of (advertiser at) Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival is one of many banks that are using your money to fund the Dakota Access pipeline. Urge Sundance to find a more appropriate sponsor and divest your debt from Chase Bank.

Wells Fargo, along with 16 other banks, is a lender to the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Wells Fargo has $120 million in a $2.5 billion credit agreement to fund the pipeline project, according to Jessica R. Ong of Wells Fargo Corporate Communications. That’s your money, not Wells Fargos.

Ask a friend or family member to hold your loan and help you divest or transfer to a “conflict free” bank or credit union.

TD Bank, Wells Fargo, Chase Bank, Citigroup, US Bank, are all using your money to finance this project. Without your money, they cannot continue. And even you don’t want to remove your money, threatening to do so in a letter, email or phone call to your bank urging them to divest is a powerful statement.

Norwegian has pulled out of Dakota Access as one of the largest financiers.

“In their battles with banks, environmentalists have scored some early victories. After a concerted effort by climate-change campaigners, several global banks, including Barclays, ING and Deutsche Bank, stepped back over the last two years from projects that involve mountaintop removal mining, a practice experts say is particularly damaging to the environment. Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase announced that it would no longer finance new coal-fired power plants in the United States or other wealthy nations, a retreat that followed similar announcements by Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. The banks’ move away from coal, however, appeared motivated as much by the plunging profitability of coal as by concerns over climate change.” -nytimes.com