Energy Sec. - Banks Refusing To Lend On Arctic Oil Just Like Refusing To Lend To Black Americans [View all]
What. The. Fuck.
Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette touched off a firestorm of controversy yesterday by comparing big banks' refusal to finance oil and gas projects in the Arctic to "redlining" the term used to describe racial discrimination in banking and mortgage lending. Brouillette's remarks came in an interview with Axios in which Brouillette denounced banks for withholding lending to fossil fuel companies in response to environmental pressure.
"For years and years and years, banks would not lend money, insurance companies would not write policies in minority areas in the country," Brouillette told Axios. "Redlining is the term used all throughout those debates. We didn't want banks redlining certain parts of the country. We don't want that here. I do not think banks should be redlining our oil and gas investment across the country."
Brouillette cited his past work with USAA, a financial services firm, but critics called it insensitive. Public Citizen, a government watchdog group, called on him to resign.
"Redlining against African Americans which was based on both official U.S. government and private bank policy is an especially raw and shameful part of American history, with lasting effects," said Public Citizen President Robert Weissman. "It is outrageous and morally repugnant that the Energy secretary would equate discriminatory bank practices toward African Americans with lending policy to oil and gas companies." Weissman added, "Given that the climate crisis will most severely affect people of color in the U.S. and around the world, bank refusal to support Arctic drilling is, in spirit, diametrically opposed to historic redlining."
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https://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1063173143