Some Chase branches in Seattle closed by
protests over pipeline loans
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[May 09, 2017]
By Tom James
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Native American leaders
and climate activists protested at several Chase branches in Seattle on
Monday, forcing them to close temporarily as demonstrators demanded the
bank not lend to projects like the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Police said 26 people were arrested by late afternoon. Activists said
they disrupted operations at 11 Chase branches, and two other branches
closed as well.
Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot, a spokeswoman for Chase, which is a unit of JP
Morgan Chase & Co <JPM.N>, declined to comment.
At a branch in downtown Seattle, about 50 protesters occupied the main
lobby, where they made speeches, sang songs, held signs and banners and
even ordered a tall stack of pizzas before police blocked the doors.
At another Seattle branch, a handful of protesters went inside while two
others locked themselves by their necks to the front doors with bicycle
locks.
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"I have a personal responsibility to make sure we have a livable
climate," said a protester who locked herself to the door and would only
identify herself as 21-year-old Andrea from Olympia, Washington.
Organizers of the protests aimed to dissuade Chase from lending to the
companies behind two major oil infrastructure projects, the Keystone XL
pipeline and Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, and tar sands oil
production in general. Protesters said they were fighting global
warming.
Keystone XL is a project of TransCanada Corp <TRP.TO> and Trans Mountain
Pipeline is a project of Kinder Morgan Inc <KMI.N>.
These efforts echo similar efforts with other banks as activists have
shifted to targeting the financial backers of the pipelines rather than
sites like the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, where thousands
protested last year.
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![](../images/050917pics/news_c7.jpg)
A protester speaks to Native American leaders and climate activists
inside of a Chase Bank location, in opposition to the Keystone XL
pipeline in Seattle, Washington, U.S. May 8, 2017. REUTERS/David
Ryder
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Bank are more sensitive to bad publicity than the pipeline
companies, said Seattle city council member Mike O'Brien, who
participated in one of the protests on Monday.
"It's a relatively small percentage of their overall portfolio,"
protest organizer Ahmed Gaya said of the banks' stakes in various
oil and gas pipelines. "If you can make that very small part ...
have a vastly disproportionate effect on their public image, that's
very persuasive."
In April, Citigroup <C.N> executives conceded they had approved
investments in the Dakota pipeline too quickly after a noisy protest
at its annual shareholder meeting, while Greenpeace activists
protested Credit Suisse's <CSGN.S> dealings with companies behind
the same pipeline. The previous month, Dutch bank ING Groep
<INGA.AS> agreed to sell its $120 million share of a loan for the
Dakota pipeline.
(Reporting by Tom James, Editing by Ben Klayman and Cynthia
Osterman)
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