For Immediate Release - DAPL Protest at Wells Fargo HQ

*For Immediate Release *

 

*San Francisco residents continue to join a global coalition in protest of

Wells Fargo, as the second-largest financier of Energy Transfer Partners,

backer of the Dakota Access Pipeline*

 

*Thursday, February 23 -- San Francisco, CA *-- San Francisco residents

continue to divest their personal investments from Wells Fargo. *Today, at

Wells Fargo headquarters at 420 Montgomery St. a half dozen protestors

entered holding signs and collectively withdrew over $25k in personal

savings.*

 

“We continue to call on our fellow Californians to divest from Wells Fargo,

given a mounting track record of morally bankrupt and financially risky

business practices. DAPL is an unnecessary pipeline project, and the latest

example of Wells Fargo operating in violation of their own commitment to

human rights,” said Kelly Trombley, a lifetime Wells Fargo customer that

can no longer tolerate doing business with Wells Fargo.

 

*Wells Faro is seeing more cities divest, including Seattle, Davis, Santa

Monica and Alameda, which passed a unanimous vote to divest this week.

*Thousands

more individuals have already closed their accounts and have defunded over

$69 million and counting.

 

On January 24th, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum fast

tracking the Dakota Access Pipeline and environmental reviews of other

projects. The corporations behind DAPL made it clear that they “fully

expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional

rerouting in and around Lake Oahe.”

 

However, the completion of DAPL is critically dependent on those 17 banks

that are jointly providing the project loan for the construction of the

pipeline. $3.75 of the $3.8 billion it costs to build the pipeline is on

credit. All of them are facing massive protest against their involvement.

Several banks in the consortium have now also openly criticized the project

sponsors for not being sufficiently responsive to the concerns of the

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

 

Johan Frijns, Director of BankTrack, said: “The Dakota Access Pipeline is

becoming a litmus test for all banks involved on how they let

environmental, social and human impacts weigh in when considering finance

for a particular project. In this case, the ongoing violation of the rights

of the Sioux Tribe leave them no other option but to withdraw from the

project.

 

“The protesters at Wells Fargo today join Standing Rock in solidarity and

call on all Wells Fargo customers to continue to pressure Wells Fargo to

terminate their involvement in the DAPL project. We need financial

institutions that are willing to honor their commitments to customers, make

sound investments, and do the right thing-divest from the Dakota Access

Pipeline,” said Trombley

 

*Contacts: *

 

*For Facebook Live coverage of this demonstration,

visit www.facebook.com/kevin.pham.31337

*

 

For inquiries about this demonstration, contact Kelly Trombley,

trombleyk@gmail.com, 925-989-7615

 

For inquiries to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, contact Nick Pelosi,

Director Corporate Engagement, First Peoples Worldwide,

standingrockdapl@gmail.com, 540-899-6545

 

For inquiries to the Indigenous Coalition at Standing Rock, contact Tara

Houska, National Campaign Director, Honor the Earth, tara@honortheearth.org,

612-226-9404

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