Largest Bank in Norway Pulls $3M from Dakota Access Pipeline

By Yessenia Funes Nov 18, 2016

The water protectors in the #NoDAPL fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline have been aiming to hit Energy Transfer, the company behind the pipeline, where it hurts: its pockets. And yesterday (November 17), Norway’s largest bank pulled $3 million in holdings from the project.

DNB, the bank, announced that it would be pulling its assets, but it remains a lender through three loans amounting to nearly $3 billion—almost 10 percent of the project’s total funding, according to Greenpeace. The bank’s statement, translated from Norwegian, says: 

This is due to all the questions that have been raised about the relationship with the Indians in one of the areas the pipeline will go through, where it will cross a river that is the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s main source of drinking water. The tribe says the $3.8 billion project threatens both their drinking water and areas important for their culture.

Greenpeace Norway delivered 120,000 signatures gathered by SumOfUs.org to DNB that called on the bank to pull its money from the project and continues to urge the bank to terminate its loans. “The writing’s on the wall for the Dakota Access Pipeline. People power is winning,” said Greenpeace USA spokesperson Lilian Molina, in their statement. “All financial institutions with a stake in the pipeline must quickly realize that financing this project is toxic.”

Other banks currently funding the pipeline include Bank of America, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, according to an investigation by advocacy organization Food & Water Watch.