Oil pipeline opponents try going after the money

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Opposition to the Dakota Access oil pipeline has persuaded some banks to stop supporting projects that might harm the environment or tread on indigenous rights, but calling the divest movement a success might be a stretch.

It doesn’t appear to be hurting the ability of energy companies to get financing and it doesn’t seem to concern lenders broadly. Yet pipeline opponents see victory in the fact that they have made financial institutions more aware of indigenous rights — and they’re intent on keeping up the fight on projects such as Keystone XL even after failing to stop the Dakota Access line.

“We aren’t ignoring the fact we couldn’t stop that pipeline,” said Vanessa Green, a campaign director with the DivestInvest initiative. “There’s a battle, and then there’s a war.”

The $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois will be fully operational by June 1, a half-year later than planned by Texas-based developer Energy Transfer Partners. The project was delayed by lawsuits from American Indian tribes who fear it threatens cultural sites and drinking water, and months of protests by tribal members and their supporters. President Donald Trump pushed the project through shortly after taking office.

While the protests centered on a camp in North Dakota that at times housed thousands of people, opponents also picketed banks in major U.S. cities and urged banks in Europe and even Japan to take a stand against the pipeline.

Some did. Paris-based BNP Paribas USA, Netherlands-based ING and Norway-based DNB sold off their shares of a Dakota Access loan. Private investor Storebrand and Odin Fund Management, both in Norway, sold shares in companies linked to the project. Dutch bank ABN-AMRO stopped providing credit to a parent company of ETP.

Pipeline opponents also targeted cities with some success, including in Seattle, where leaders in February voted to cut ties with San Francisco-based banking giant Wells Fargo in part due to its role in funding Dakota Access.

In all, the DefundDAPL movement claims that divestments from that project total more than $80 million from individuals and $4.3 billion from cities.

But that didn’t stop ETP from completing the Dakota Access pipeline, and the company has a number of other projects underway across the U.S.

“We do not have a concern about our current or future financing options,” ETP spokeswoman Vicki Granado said.

TransCanada Corp., which is planning the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline through the central Plains, wouldn’t say whether it has secured the necessary financing. But its first-quarter 2017 financial report indicates that finding funds overall hasn’t been a problem: The company raised $2.6 billion toward a $23 billion capital program.