Two major U.S. banking institutions are backing down from their pledges not to finance projects related to producing fossil fuels. Bloomberg reports that Bank of America and Citibank have backed away from a pledge to no longer finance fossil fuel projects, such as coal mining or oil drilling.

Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. have done more to support the expansion of fossil-fuel companies than any other lenders claiming to target net-zero financed emissions, according to a new analysis comparing industry pledges to action.

The Wall Street firms, which joined the Net Zero Banking Alliance when it was founded in April 2021, have since contributed at least $53 billion in combined lending and underwriting to oil, gas and coal firms whose operations are still growing, according to a study by Reclaim Finance. Citi was responsible for $31 billion of that, the French nonprofit said.

The findings are part of a wider analysis of finance industry actions since the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, of which NZBA is a sub-group, was created almost two years ago. Since then, banks have provided at least $269 billion in aggregate financing to fossil-fuel companies that are still expanding their operations, Reclaim Finance estimates.

Also, The New York Times also reports two climate advisers with the Export-Import Bank essentially resigned in protest the other day over the organization subsidizing the drilling of oil and construction of gas wells in Bahrain.

A federal bank that finances projects overseas is set to vote on Thursday on whether to use taxpayer dollars to help drill oil and gas wells in Bahrain, a contentious decision that prompted two of the bank’s climate advisers to resign, according to people with knowledge of their decisions.

The project in Bahrain is one of several controversial overseas fossil fuel projects that the Export-Import Bank of the United States is currently considering.

The two advisers, who sit on an 18-person board that President Biden created to help the bank take climate change into account when making investments, resigned last week after a meeting about the Bahrain project, according to five current and former bank officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.

According to The Times, the two consultants in question allege they were kept in the dark about fossil fuel-related projects the organization decided to undertake and were blocked from making recommendations to approve or even change the plans. The Times reports the two officials further allege two more advisers on the panel they served on might step down as well. This comes after Biden had ordered that carbon-intensive projects overseas not be financed three years ago.

None the less, It is one thing to try to blame investigations by Republican elected officials, but ultimately banks, they’re financial institutions and are not social experiments. The Ex-Im Bank is chartered as an independent entity and has some leeway in how it can operate and, like any financial institution, has to make money in the same way private lending institutions, like Bank of America and Citibank.

Banks exist to make money and a capitalistic economy, like the United States has, needs financial institutions willing to take risks in filling the need to borrow or lend not only to customers but also companies involved in necessary activities (like fossil fuel production). Not only are saner heads prevailing in this regard but environmentalists always knew banks that took the Net Zero pledge were not serious or might back off.

Deep down environmentalists know our economy is based on the profit motive but somehow have to continue to justify their revolution so green groups continuously set themselves up for failure, and when they do, pitch it to their contributors later that they were so close to victory but need more money to keep up the fight. If environmentalists were successful, much of the people working for organizations, like Greenpeace or EarthJustice, would be out of work. Can’t let that happen.