2020 Election - Thread #5

[robkelk]

I mentioned this three threads ago...

May as well post this here, since oil-drilling in Alaska parkland was one of the Nicknamer-in-Chief's pet projects.

RBC - one of the 33 banks on the Swiss Financial Stability Board's list of global systemically important banks (and thus "too big to fail" from an international point of view) and the fifth-largest bank in North America - announced last Friday that they will not fund any oil and gas development in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Due to its particular ecological and social significance and vulnerability, RBC will not provide direct financing for any project or transaction that involves exploration or development in the ANWR

(Source)

This puts them in the same position as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs (largest, fourth-largest, and seventh-largest banks in North America, respectively).

Even if the Nicknamer-in-Chief wants it to happen, if nobody's going to pay for it, it ain't happening.

(RBC investments in coal-fired power plants, thermal coal mines, mountain-top removal coal mines and development in UNESCO World Heritage Sites now also require "enhanced due diligence"... which is nice, but considering RBC finances a lot of fossil fuel development in Canada, not as reassuring as an outright refusal to fund.)

Well, the auction of licenses to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was held earlier this week, presumably so that the outgoing administration could take the credit for it.

Of the 22 tracts offered, 10 had no bids, and 8 more only had one bidder: the Alaska Industrial Development and Industrial Authority, a state agency.

The sale raised less than $15m (£11m) - far less than the government had hoped.

So, this plan was a bust from any objective standard.