While the Trump administration charges full steam ahead to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, the Sierra Club and our partners are continuing to use every tool at our disposal to protect this place, including taking the fight directly to major oil companies and banks.
Over the last two months, as oil companies and banks gathered for their annual general meetings (AGMs), we joined Indigenous allies in showing up at these meetings across the country and the world to demand that corporations stay out of the Arctic Refuge. We partnered in this effort with the Gwich’in Steering Committee, which works to protect the coastal plain on behalf of the Gwich’in people, who have relied on the land and wildlife there for their survival and way of life for thousands of years.
Some of the world’s leading investors have also warned against drilling in the refuge, citing serious financial and reputational risks. Already, a plan by SAExploration to conduct destructive seismic testing for oil on the coastal plain -- the first step toward drilling -- has been delayed after huge public backlash and fear of litigation set back the administration’s permitting process. As a result, any oil company that participates in a lease sale this year will be bidding blind, without information about what they’re buying, and whether they will even find oil there.
In the wake of new revelations about BP’s previously unreported lobbying efforts in favor of Arctic drilling, I joined Gwich’in Steering Committee executive director Bernadette Demientieff and Rhonda Anderson, an Inupiaq woman from the village of Kaktovik, to travel all the way to the UK to communicate their concerns directly to BP’s executives and shareholders.
Photo: Karren Murray, Firstpix
Though based in London, BP held its AGM all the way up in Aberdeen, Scotland -- perhaps hoping to avoid protests and scrutiny far away from the city. That proved not to be the case. While we were speaking to BP’s executives, board, and shareholders inside the meeting about the refuge and calling on the company to leave this sacred place intact, protesters gathered outside to call BP out for its contribution to the climate crisis and urge it to change course.
In the meeting, the dominant theme from shareholders was climate change, and almost every single question was about how BP will transition its business model away from fossil fuels. This year, a shareholder resolution -- put forward by Climate Action 100+, a coalition of more than 320 institutional investors (including the Sierra Club Foundation) with more than $33 trillion in assets -- passed with a remarkable 99% of the vote.
The resolution instructs BP to begin disclosing how its strategy is consistent with the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. BP will have to report on how making large new investments in physical assets -- “including in the exploration, acquisition or development of oil and gas resources and reserves” -- is consistent with the Paris goals. While this measure is not nearly enough to fundamentally change BP’s practices, it should force BP to confront the fact that drilling in the Arctic Refuge cannot be consistent with the Paris Agreement.
Meanwhile, back in the US, the Sierra Club and Stand.Earth led a group of activists and Gwich’in leaders to rally outside BP America’s headquarters in Denver -- along with a mobile billboard circling its office with an anti-drilling message -- to make sure it got the message loud and clear. The rally in Denver was highlighted in the press alongside an incredible action by Greenpeace UK activists to shut down BP’s headquarters in London that week.
Photo: Justin Forrest Parks
Around the same time, as other oil majors ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and ExxonMobil held their own annual meetings, we supported Gwich’in leaders in attending each one to make the case that pursuing drilling in this pristine wilderness would not only be bad for the environment and bad for the human rights of Indigenous peoples but also bad business for these companies.
Bernadette Dementieff and Rhonda Anderson spoke at ConocoPhillips’ AGM in Houston, where Bernadette wrote a powerful op-ed for the Houston Chronicle, saying, “It’s time for ConocoPhillips to publicly affirm that they take the concerns of the Gwich’in Nation and the millions of Americans who stand with us seriously, and that they will not drill on our sacred lands.”
At Chevron’s AGM, Gwich’in leader TiLiisia Sisto traveled from her home of Venetie, AK, to the Bay Area to tell the company why the Arctic Refuge must be protected, and the Sierra Club Foundation’s Executive Director Dan Chu also told Chevron’s CEO that Arctic drilling would pose an enormous financial and reputational risk to the company. Outside the meeting, the Sierra Club, Stand.Earth, Idle No More SF Bay, Amazon Watch, and other partners rallied to hold Chevron accountable for its dirty record and demand that it stay out of the Arctic Refuge.
Photo: Kiersten Iwai, Stand.Earth
At ExxonMobil’s AGM, Gwich’in leader Donald Tritt traveled from Arctic Village, AK to Dallas to join the Sierra Club’s Dan Ritzman and explain to the company how drilling in the Arctic Refuge would threaten the Porcupine caribou herd that is core to the Gwich’in community’s food security and identity. Shamefully, Exxon executives would not even allow Donald to speak inside the meeting -- so instead, he recorded a video of his statement for the Sierra Club to tweet out. 93,000 views (and counting) later, we know that Donald’s message is being heard by Exxon and far beyond:
Donald Tritt, a Gwich'in leader w/ @OurArcticRefuge, traveled from Alaska to Texas to be at the #ExxonAGM today to ask @ExxonMobil to stay out of the Arctic Refuge. Exxon wouldn't even let him speak. Here's what he would have said. RT to #StandWithTheGwichin! #ProtectTheArctic pic.twitter.com/NxWUjJm5iP
— Sierra Club (@SierraClub) May 29, 2019
Oil company executives were not the only ones during this shareholder meetings season to face demands to help protect the coastal plain. We also attended the shareholder meetings of the top American banks, including Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, to urge them to commit not to finance any oil and gas development in the Arctic Refuge. International banks like Barclays and National Australia Bank have already made changes to their environmental policies to rule out financing for drilling in the Arctic Refuge, and we’re calling on these US banks to do the same.
Major banks have a key role to play in deciding what projects and companies to finance, and as important brands and institutions, banks can and should take a stand on the issues that purportedly matter to them. The largest US banks all talk extensively about their support for climate action and respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples, yet they continue to invest in dirty energy projects around the world. The Banking on Climate Change 2019 report showed that the biggest US banks are also the biggest funders of fossil fuels in the world. If they want to actually walk the talk, one of these institutions could start by becoming the first major American bank to say no to funding the destruction of the Arctic Refuge.
Over the past two months, the Sierra Club stood with our Gwich’in partners and made a powerful showing at some of the largest companies across the world in support of defending the coastal plain. And we’re just getting started. Major banks and oil companies will continue hearing from the public and their shareholders loud and clear that the Arctic Refuge is no place for drilling.