Drill, baby, drill!

Over $700 billion in loans and underwriting flowed into companies conducting business in fossil fuels last year, funneled by 60 of the world’s largest private banks, according to a report released Monday by several environmental groups.

The annual report, put together by the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Network among others, shows a slight decline in banks’ financing for oil, gas and coal since 2021, but researchers say it is not dropping quickly enough.

Environmental activists have for decades sought to put pressure on the money that undergirds the fossil fuel industry, in hopes of galvanizing a transition to clean energy. Climate advocates have found some success in recent years as ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles have begun factoring into business strategies for many major financial institutions.

Three years ago, many of the banks cited in the Sierra Club and Rainforest Network’s report got in trouble with a number of state officials for scaling back or outright halting lending for fossil fuel projects. So banks are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

There were signs of cracks in the bank’s anti-fossil fuel armor right around early last year. Even as early as February of this year, environmentalists always knew banks that took their Net Zero pledge were not serious or might back off.

Banks are financial institutions and are not social experiments. They exist to make money and market economies, like in the United States, need 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).

Environmentalists are well aware Western economies are based on the profit motive, but somehow continue to justify their actions despite green groups continuously failing. When they do lose, environmentalists turn their loses into fund raising drives telling their contributors that they were so close to victory but need more money to keep up the fight. In reality, 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.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay