Canadian banks have provided USD $3.8 billion to the companies behind the Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline

Photo: “Appalachians Against Pipelines: After preventing MVP construction at the site for 7 hours, around 1:15 PM [on Saturday August 26], the person locked to equipment was extracted and arrested.”

If completed, the $6.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) would carry fracked gas about 300 miles (482 kilometres) from West Virginia to Virginia, cross nearly 1,000 streams and wetlands (construction to date has resulted in more than 300 violations of water quality protections) and could lead to annual emissions of more than 89 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent — the same as adding 26 coal plants.

Appalachian Voices has also reported: “In MVP’s 2017 Final Environmental Impact Statement, the company identified 50 Indigenous cultural sites. Out of these, the company only classified one as a burial mound, located in Nicholas, West Virginia. [Monacan climate justice organizer] Desiree Shelley states that this is inaccurate, and that there are several burial mounds and other Indigenous cultural sites either in the pipeline’s path in Southwest Virginia or close enough to be affected by construction.”

Banking on Climate Chaos and others have collaboratively noted that American banks are financing the pipeline and ask: Will US banks become the next target for activists fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline? (August 24, 2023).

We further note that Canadian banks are also financing the companies behind the pipeline, a joint venture of EQT Midstream Partners (45.5%); NextEra Energy Resources (31%); Con Edison Transmission (12.5%); WGL Midstream (10%) and RGC Midstream (1%).

According to figures from Banking on Climate Chaos, Canadian banks have provided USD $3.827 billion in financing since 2016 to these companies:

Amounts are in millions USD.

– The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC): $1,280.06 to EQT Corp., $303.48 to NextEra Energy Capital Holdings Inc., $9.29 to NextEra Energy Operating Partners LP, and $88.27 to WGL Holdings Inc. for a total of $1,681.1.

– The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD): $589.26 to EQT Corp., $46.22 to NextEra Energy Capital Holdings Inc., $9.10 to NextEra Energy Operating Partners LP, and $238.32 to WGL Holdings Inc., for a total of $882.9.

– Bank of Montreal: $517.10 to EQT Corp., and $116.74 to NextEra Energy Capital Holdings Inc. for a total of $633.84.

– Scotiabank: $170.51 to EQT Corp., $331.16 to NextEra Energy Capital Holdings Inc., and $23.59 to NextEra Energy Operating Partners LP for a total of $525.26.

– The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC): $104.65 to NextEra Energy Capital Holdings Inc.

Image from Banking on Climate Chaos.

On August 25, Roanoke, Virginia-based writer, artist and organizer Denali Sai Nalamalapu highlighted in Truthout magazine:

“This weekend, only a few hundred activists will come to Appalachia to support the people directly impacted by the still unfinished 303-mile fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) through their participation in trainings, anti-pipeline actions and a music festival. But in a month, thousands and thousands will descend on New York City to demand that President Joe Biden declare a climate emergency and end all new fossil fuel projects.

From the front lines of a massive, ongoing fossil fuel buildout in Appalachia, I wonder: Where are the thousands flocking to help us put a direct stop to this project? What would our movement look like if we centered it around the front lines?”

We continue to follow this situation.

For more see Appalachians Against Pipelines on Facebook and on X/Twitter.