Global day of action targets banks funding Line 3 pipeline

Global day of action targets banks funding Line 3 pipeline

Local climate activists demand a halt to fossil fuel funding.

Big banks need to invest in a just transition to renewable energy that protects Indigenous communities.

BOSTON, MA — Local climate activists from several organizations marched through the streets of Downtown Boston today in protest of banks funding the Line 3 Pipeline.¹ The proposal would have the pipeline built on untouched wetlands in the treaty-protected territory of the Anishinaabe peoples in Minnesota, who have been taking direct action to stop construction of Line 3.

The march through Boston was sponsored by Boston May Day Coalition, Climate Finance Action, College Climate Coalition, MIT Divest, Stop Line 3, Stop the Money Pipeline, Sunrise Boston, and Extinction Rebellion Boston. This action was part of a global day of action to Stop Line 3, with actions planned in Japan, Switzerland, Sierra Leone, Costa Rica, the UK, Holland, France, Canada, and 80 cities in the United States. The protest began at the Chase Bank near the Prudential Center. The group of 50+ marched with signs and banners from Chase Bank to a nearby TD Bank, where a list of demands was presented to the branch manager.

“Banks like TD Bank and Bank of America, insurance companies like Liberty Mutual, and the stockholders of Enbridge need to do what’s right for people and the planet sooner rather than later. They need to understand that the abuses of the land and water that have been the hallmark of Enbridge's business model have consequences that will not stop at the border of Weymouth or on the lands of Indigenous nations. The climate and ecological destruction financed by TD and other banks will come to their doorsteps, too. It's time to end Enbridge's ruinous ways by removing their life blood,” says Alice Arena, member of the Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station (FRRACS), a group that tried to stop construction of the Weymouth Compressor station, and is now protesting its operation.

This global day of action comes just one month after Chase Bank, Citibank, TD Bank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America agreed to give Enbridge, the company building Line 3, a “sustainability-linked” loan. The details of what makes the loan “sustainability-linked” has not been disclosed. According to Enbridge’s Environmental Impact Statement, Line 3 would result in an additional 193 million tons of greenhouse gas being released into the atmosphere every year.² According to one study, Line 3 would release as much greenhouse gases as fifty new coal-fired power plants.³ Key permits for the pipeline were granted to Enbridge by the Trump Administration weeks before Trump left office.

The fight against Line 3 is central to the discussion of Indigenous rights and sovereignty in the United States. The Anishinaabe peoples in Minnesota are demanding that fossil fuel infrastructure stop being built on their sacred land, and that we begin to invest in a just transition to renewable energy that allows Indigenous people autonomy over their land.

More than 250 people have been arrested for taking action to stop the construction of Line 3. Since the #DefundLine3 campaign⁴ launched in February 2021, there have been protests at bank branches in 16 states and activists have sent more than 700,000 emails, 7,000 calendar invites to bank executives, and made more than 3,000 phone calls demanding that big banks stop funding Line 3.

“Bank funding of fossil fuel projects that are destroying Earth and leading us towards what climate scientists call an “uninhabitable hothouse Earth” needs to stop. They continue to lead life on Earth towards worsening climate & ecological destruction which will result in social collapse,” said Nic Bryant from Extinction Rebellion Boston. ⁵⁶⁷

Extinction Rebellion Boston is an autonomous chapter of the international grassroots movement, Extinction Rebellion (XR), which started in London in 2018. The purpose of XR is to tell the truth about how dire the ecological and climate crisis is and spark immediate action in order to prevent complete climate and ecological collapse. We aim to mobilize people around the world to utilize nonviolent direct action to demand that governments take radical action to avert societal collapse caused by widespread climate and ecological disaster, and to protect front-line communities, biodiversity, and the natural world. This movement is non-political, and unites all of humanity behind a singular goal of a just and livable future. Learn more at: xrmass.org

1. Stop Line 3
2. Why no one agrees on Line 3 pipeline's climate change impact | MPR News
3. A Giant Step Backward: Carbon Impact of the Line 3 Pipeline - Oil Change International (priceofoil.org)
4. Defund Line 3 (stopthemoneypipeline.com)
5. Climate change report: Human civilization at risk by 2050, according to new Australian climate change analysis - CBS News
6. Climate Change Threatens the World’s Food Supply, United Nations Warns - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
7. Animal populations worldwide have declined nearly 70% in just 50 years, new report says - CBS News