ALBERTA

RMA threatens to name and shame deadbeat oil and gas companies with $245 million in unpaid property taxes

posted by Jim Storrie 
February 22, 2021

File this one under oil and gas not loving Alberta back. The Rural Municipalities of Alberta, an advocacy group representing 69 of Alberta’s rural counties and municipal districts, reports that oil and gas companies are refusing to pay about $245 million in taxes that they owe to towns, villages and hamlets across the province.

And their president is prepared to escalate matters further. “The RMA will name and shame these deadbeat oil companies unless this problem is fixed by the Alberta government soon,” said Paul McLauchlin, president of the RMA. 

Photo courtesy of the Orphan Well Adoption Agency.

It’s a huge pot of money for these small communities who are already struggling with the increased expenses and lowered tax revenues of Alberta’s disastrous COVID situation. And it’s not a problem that appeared out of thin air. Last spring, before the distraction of the pandemic, municipalities were already raising the alarm that oil and gas companies were failing to pay their fair share.

The response from Alberta’s UCP government wasn’t to fill the gap, either. In fact the province had already been very aggressively chiseling away at municipal budgets: crown land grants and the Municipal Sustainability Initiative took significant cuts, a huge portion of policing costs were dumped from the provincial budget onto municipalities’ shoulders, and some provincially-collected taxes that were formerly handed over to towns and cities were clawed back by the government.

The MacKinnon report — written by Janice MacKinnon and commissioned by the UCP to provide cover for austerity measures shortly after they gained power —”made it clear that municipalities must shoulder more of the responsibility for major projects,” said Finance Minister Travis Toews back in 2019.

The reaction by the UCP to the RMA’s warnings last spring, in fact, was to let deadbeat oil and gas companies off the hook. Last October the Alberta government gave the industry a three-year tax exemption for any new pipeline or drilling projects, and were set to go even further, proposing a giant tax cut that would essentially zero out all of the missing property taxes owed to these communities. Strong opposition from municipalities put that plan on hold but it’s not gone for good. The UCP administration is continuing to ‘consult’ about just how big the tax break will be—it’s been delayed, not cancelled.

Kenney and the UCP haven’t pushed that tax break through yet, but municipalities still aren’t getting their money. Perverse loopholes in Alberta’s tax laws mean that oil and gas companies can often just get away with ducking huge tax bills. Researching this issue for The Narwhal, Sharon J. Riley pointed out a few recent examples: Stettler having to eat a $4 million loss to a deadbeat oil and gas company in 2019, Big Lakes County cheated out of $6 million through 2018-2019, and Lacombe County left holding the bag for $600,000 in 2019.

If you fail to pay your own property taxes, municipalities can and will go after you in all sorts of ways; they have the authority to put liens on your property and auction it off to pay what you owe. But not if you’re an oil and gas company. Thanks to the rules in Alberta, municipalities have little recourse when it comes to oil and gas deadbeats.

“There is no reason why oil and gas companies should have an option to pay property taxes and face no consequences if they choose not to. Not only does this non-payment impact municipalities providing the infrastructure that those companies use every day, but it is also disrespectful to every other homeowner and small business in the municipality who will see their taxes increase or their service levels decrease due to the irresponsibility of some oil and gas companies,” said McLaughlin.

He’s more polite than we would have been, but he’s right. The oil and gas industry should not have the right to simply decline to pay taxes. And Alberta’s government seems set on heading in exactly the wrong direction, pushing to let this parasitic behavior fly while sticking rural Albertans with the bill, just like they have on the orphan well file.

If you are an Albertan living in a rural community today and you oppose letting deadbeat oil and gas firms skip out on their taxes, it’s time to lean on your MLA. Emails are easily dismissable but phone calls and letters often do apply some pressure. You can find the contact information for your MLA online. 

After a year of the provincial government refusing to help—and watching it actually make matters worse—the RMA is wise to be escalating their response. If they ever want to see a cent of what they’re owed, these rural municipalities need to start playing hardball.

With files from Duncan Kinney.

Mariachi band plays outside Ted Cruz’s home following Cancun trip controversy
Gino Spocchia
Mon, February 22, 2021

A mariachi band plays outside Ted Cruz’s home(@poojaontv / ABC13 / Twitter)

A mariachi band was seen playing outside the home of Texas senator Ted Cruz on Sunday, as outrage continued over a short-lived holiday to Cancun, Mexico during a devastating storm.

According to witnesses, some of Mr Cruz’s neighbours went out on to the street to watch the impromptu mariachi performance Sunday, which was organised by a Houston-based Twitter user, Bryan Hlavinka.

“Just a typical Sunday. Mariachi band in town,” said the Texan in a video shared to Twitter, which showed the mariachi band walking behind him. “Where on our way to Ted Cruz’s house because he feels so bad about missing his vacation.”

The vacation – which was cancelled by Mr Cruz after touching down in Cancun on Thursday morning – came amid widespread power outages, and as thousands remained without running water for the fourth day running.

Mr Cruz admitted afterwards that the vacation was a “mistake”, and that he "was trying to take care of my kids,” who like millions of Texans last week, went for days without power.

“It's unfortunate, the fire storm that came from it. It was not my intention,” he told ABC13. “In saying yes to my daughters to somehow diminish all the Texans that were going through real hardship."

As criticism continued over the weekend, videos posted on Twitter on Sunday showed the mariachi band playing songs outside Mr Cruz’s home in Houston, Texas, as a form of protest against the senator’s actions.

A separately organised fundraiser for a mariachi band to play outside the senator’s home on Thursday has since attracted donations, with proceedings going directly to Texas Children Hospital in Mr Cruz’s neighbourhood of Houston.

Adam Jama, from Carrollton, Texas, who organised the fundraising page, wrote that “no one should go to Cancun and not listen to mariachi”, after Mr Cruz cancelled the planned trip.

“Senator Cruz, being an amazing dad, dropped off his family in Cancun in the middle of a major crisis and came back to Texas to continue serving his constituents,” wrote Mr Jama.

“We want to thank Senator Cruz for his leadership and pay for an amazing mariachi band to perform for him. No one should go to Cancun and not listen to mariachi,” the fundraiser added.




Temperatures reached as low as 0F (-18C) in Texas last Sunday, in what was the worst winter storm to strike the state in some three decades — and with as many as five million people thought to be without power at the worst point last week.

At least 30 fatalities have also been reported in weather-related incidents, leading to one bystander at the mariachi band protest holding a sign that said: “Cruz’s lies cost lives”.

Mr Cruz said in a written statement on Thursday: "With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon."

Mr Cruz later told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity that “I had initially planned to stay through the weekend and to work remotely there, but as I – as I was heading down there, you know, I started to have second thoughts almost immediately because the crisis here in Texas, you need to be here on the ground."

This article was updated to correct the name of the organiser of the mariachi band.

Read More

Ted Cruz under fire after Texas winter storm ‘photo op’ shows him handing out water to residents

‘Say no to your kids’: Houston police chief slams Ted Cruz

Houston Chronicle publishes scathing editorial telling Ted Cruz to resign (again)

CANADIAN VOTING SYSTEM WORKS FOR US

After suing Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani, Dominion says it will go after others who spread claims of election fraud - and it's 'not ruling anyone out'

Grace Dean
Wed, February 24, 2021, 

Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Mike Lindell is "definitely" not its last, its CEO told CNBC.

Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani made baseless claims about Dominion's voting machines.

Asked whether the company would sue Fox News, John Poulos said Dominion was "not ruling anyone out."

Dominion Voting Systems' CEO said the company would continue to take legal action against people who spread baseless claims that its voting machines were used to "steal" the 2020 US presidential election.

Dominion has already filed defamation lawsuits against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, the pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, and former President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, seeking at least $1.3 billion in damages in each case.

Dominion CEO John Poulos told CNBC on Tuesday that the filing against Lindell on Monday was "definitely not the last lawsuit."

Dominion has sent cease-and-desist notices and warnings to preserve documents to more than 150 people, The Washington Post reported. This includes the media outlets Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News.

Asked whether the company would sue Fox News, Poulos said Dominion was "not ruling anyone out."

As conspiracy theories sprung up around the election, one posited that Dominion and Smartmatic, a rival election-technology company, developed technology that "flipped" votes from Trump to Joe Biden through a method developed with the regime of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez.

The theory has been thoroughly debunked. But that didn't stop Powell and Giuliani from pushing elements of the theory while filing a series of failed lawsuits seeking to overturn the results of the election. Lindell has also spread misinformation about the machines, saying Dominion "built them to cheat."

A Fox News representative told Insider earlier in February that the network ran several "fact-check" segments "prior to any lawsuit chatter." While several of its news shows reported that there was no evidence of Dominion's systems changing votes, Fox News, in particular its opinion hosts, "questioned the results of the election or pushed conspiracy theories about it at least 774 times" in the two weeks after the network called the race, according to Media Matters.

On February 4, Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News over election conspiracy theories, saying it had "damaged democracy worldwide." Fox News said it fairly reported and commented on "allegations in a hotly contested" election and asked a judge to dismiss the defamation lawsuit.

Insider has contacted Fox News for comment on Poulos' remarks.

Lindell called 'reckless' in his peddling of disinformation

Poulos told CNBC that Lindell's claims were "absolute nonsense," adding that what the controversial CEO touted as evidence was actually "fake documents."

Poulos said the voter-fraud theory had caused "devastating" reputational damage to the company.

He said Americans could be "forgiven for believing" the claims because they were touted as facts.

Despite naming both Lindell and MyPillow in the lawsuit, Poulos said Dominion didn't want to put the pillow company out of business.

"The larger point is to get the facts on the table in front of a court of law where evidence is properly judged," he said.

In the lawsuit, Dominion listed various promotional codes that MyPillow had used to offer online discounts, including "QAnon" and "FightforTrump."

Poulos told CNBC that Lindell used the codes to attract people to MyPillow's website.

In the lawsuit, Dominion said Lindell's voter-fraud claims had caused MyPillow's sales to surge by up to 40%.

But Lindell told Insider he expected to lose money as well over the claims - which he stood by - including an estimated $65 million in revenue this year he attributed to boycotts from retailers including Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl's.

Read the original article on Business Insider

U.S. settles with BitPay for apparent sanctions breaches


A woman explains how bitpay, a company designed to help companies

 use virtual currency, to attendee during Inside Bitcoins: 

The Future of Virtual Currency Conference in New York

By Sarah Marsh

(Reuters) - BitPay, one of the biggest cryptocurrency payment processors, will pay $507,375 to settle its potential civil liability for apparent violations of U.S. sanctions on countries like Cuba, North Korea and Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

Digital currencies, which are mostly unregulated, decentralized and anonymous, have gained popularity in recent years, especially in countries under U.S. and other sanctions, where they are seen as a way of getting around the global financial system.

Bitcoin touched a market capitalization of $1 trillion as it hit yet another record high on Friday, with world's most popular cryptocurrency hitting an all-time high above $54,000. It has surged roughly 64% so far this month alone, fueled by signs it is gaining acceptance among mainstream investors and companies.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said late on Thursday that it had detected 2,102 instances between 2013 and 2018 in which BitPay had allowed people apparently located in sanctioned countries to conduct transactions worth around $129,000 in total with merchants in the United States and elsewhere.

OFAC acknowledged that BitPay had implemented sanctions compliance controls as early as 2013 but it should have better screened the information it had on customers' location through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and other data it had access to.

"This action emphasizes that OFAC obligations apply to all U.S. persons, including those involved in providing digital currency services," OFAC said in a statement.

BitPay said it had continued to improve its compliance program during the transaction period and since.

"Since our founding, our commitment to compliance has been continuous and unwavering," a company spokesman told Reuters.

The illegal use of cryptocurrencies has long worried regulators and law enforcement, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde both calling for tighter oversight last month.

Increasing regulation is a blow people in countries like Cuba, cut off from conventional international payment systems and financial markets by the decades-old U.S. trade embargo, although traders say they will find a way around it.

While digital currencies are often thought of as a form investment, in Cuba some ordinary citizens buy them to make purchases online as well as to receive remittances.

"It's the country in the Caribbean with most crypto activity," said Alex Sobrino, founder of the group CubaCripto on different social media platforms where Cubans debate and trade digital currencies. "There are hundreds of thousands of Cubans using it."

Reuters was unable to independently verify that figure.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Repoorting by Tom Wilson in London; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Op-Ed: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has value far beyond $25 an acre in oil leases. Tell Congress.

Deborah L. Williams
Mon, February 22, 2021, 

A plane flies over the Porcupine caribou herd on the coastal plain of the remote and pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

The pure, utter wildness of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will overwhelm you. When I was there one June, I watched thousands of caribou migrating purposefully to their birthing grounds on the refuge's coastal plain. The Porcupine caribou herd had once again traversed 400 miles to reach this incomparable place — remote, pristine, rich with resources for the mothers and their calves.

On Jan. 20, President Biden signed an executive order that placed a temporary moratorium on all activities associated with the auction of refuge oil and gas leases. It was the first of several steps that need to be taken to reverse a terrible mistake involving this publicly owned, irreplaceable national treasure.

For more than 60 years, starting with President Eisenhower, Americans have worked to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America’s Serengeti. Repeatedly, efforts by the Alaska congressional delegation to open its coastal plain to oil and gas exploration and extraction have been successfully stopped. In 2017, however, during the rush to find money to help pay for, among other things, tax breaks for the wealthy, the Senate voted, by a slim 52-vote majority, to require two oil and gas lease auctions in the refuge.

The silver-tongued argument went this way: Holding two lease sales would generate more than $1.8 billion over 10 years. On Jan. 6 the Trump administration conducted the first of the two prescribed auctions (the second is not yet scheduled). The sale did not, in fact, result in $1.8 billion in bids. It didn’t realize $900 million or even $100 million. The first sale generated just $12 million. No major oil company submitted a bid.

From the private sector, two small companies submitted bids: Knik Arm Services and Regenerate Alaska. Ever heard of them? Of course not. They each won one tract for a total of about 70,000 acres at less than $34 an acre.

In the pitifully attended auction, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a quasi-governmental entity and not an oil company at all, was the only bidder on seven other awarded tracts, totaling more than 365,000 acres. The state-based entity won its leases by bidding the minimum allowed, a mere $25 an acre.

Selling development rights to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most precious and valuable ecosystems on Earth, for $25 or $34 an acre is a national and international disgrace.

How many millions of dollars did the Trump administration spend to prepare for the first lease sale? That number has not been released, but based on other sales I’m familiar with, $3 million is a reasonable guess. This would mean the January auction netted around a measly $9 million.

Here is the good news. Environmental groups have filed compelling lawsuits charging that the processes and documents leading to the lease sale, including the critically important environmental impact statement, were legally flawed. As has happened with other improper lease deals, the federal courts can void these leases.

Congress must also act. Americans want the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge protected for its extraordinary value — to the Indigenous Gwich'in people, and as wilderness, wildlife sanctuary and a still unspoiled, environmentally crucial ecosystem. The coastal plain is the birthing ground not only of the Porcupine caribou herd but also of threatened polar bears. Hundreds of thousands of snow geese often arrive annually to feed on cotton grass. The Gwich'in call the refuge “the sacred place where life begins.” As public land, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge belongs to all of us and to future generations. We still have the ability to keep it intact, flourishing and wild.

Understanding that it made a significant error the last time, one based on grossly incorrect assumptions, Congress now needs to amend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to eliminate the Arctic refuge leasing provisions. No more American tax dollars should be wasted on pursuing reckless leasing in an incomparable area that no oil company of any credible size wants to develop.

We all make mistakes. Let’s thoughtfully, but adamantly, demand that Congress reverse this one.

Deborah L. Williams, a lecturer in the UC Santa Barbara environmental studies department, has worked in the federal government and the nonprofit sector to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for more than 40 years.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP UNDER WORKERS CONTROL

Closing GKN plant 'difficult but necessary', says Melrose boss

Alan Tovey
Tue, February 23, 2021

GKN takeover protest

Melrose has defended its plan to close a Birmingham car parts plant with the loss of 500 jobs, saying it was “one of the difficult things we have to do to make GKN a better business”.

Simon Peckham, chief executive of the company that bought GKN three years ago after a bitter £8bn takeover battle, told MPs that shutting the Erdington site was necessary to improve the “troubled business”.

Giving evidence to the Business Select Committee on the impact of Britain leaving the EU and the industry’s readiness for it, Mr Peckham said Brexit was not a factor in the decision.

“Let's be entirely clear, Brexit has no influence over the decision," he said. "Erdington is one of the difficult decisions as well as the good stuff we do. We inherited GKN, which basically was a troubled business.”

During the takeover, unions raised fears about the new owners asset-stripping the business and closing down British factories.

Melrose gave a series of undertakings to the Government to protect the business, including not selling the sensitive aerospace business and maintaining investment in R&D.

Mr Peckham said his company had “complied with the spirit and the word of every undertaking we gave, but we also said we would make difficult decisions from time to time - unfortunately, Erdington is one of those”.

He added that “it might shock” MPs on the committee to learn the Birmingham drivetrain assembly plant “lost money every single year for the past 10 years, with losses now totalling £100m”.

Mr Peckham added that over the past decade executives “have tried to improve the business, but they've failed”.

He added that Erdington - one of only two GKN automotive plants in the UK - lost a quarter of its market between 2016 and 2019, and that 40pc of its sales would “disappear through electrification”.

This is thought to be partly due to Jaguar Land Rover, a major customer, taking its cars all electric.

Work at Erdington is expected to be sent to the company’s European plants, and Mr Peckham said this was a consequence of decisions by previous management regimes.

“Unfortunately, before we turned up, past management of GKN placed the manufacturing [elsewhere], Erdington's not a manufacturing site, it’s purely an assembly plant. It doesn't have manufacturing equipment," he said.

“They chose to put the manufacturing for EV manufacture in Italy, we didn't make that choice, they did. Now we have capacity in that plant. There's nothing we can do about it. It's a legacy we inherited.”

Unions have vowed to fight the closure, with Unite labelling pledges to protect the business as “at best misleading, or at worst a direct lie”.

GREEN CAPITALI$M

Lloyd's insurer Brit says it will not insure Adani coal mine

The Lloyd's of London building is lit by winter sun in the 

City of London financial district in London

LONDON (Reuters) - Major Lloyd's of London insurer Brit will not insure Adani Enterprises' Carmichael thermal coal mine, it said on Tuesday, adding to a growing list of Lloyd's insurers who have made similar pledges.

Carmichael has provoked controversy in Australia with its plan to open up a new thermal coal basin at a time of growing concern over global warming, in a region that is in need of jobs.

"Brit does not, has never, and will not write any policies relating directly to the Adani Carmichael coal mine itself," Brit said in an emailed statement.

"Brit also confirms that it does not plan to renew any risks involving any other works directly associated with the project."

Twenty-six Lloyd's syndicates have now said they will not insure the mine, according to action group Insure Our Future.

Adani has begun construction at Carmichael together with an associated rail project, with plans to start producing 10 million tonnes of coal per year from 2021.

The coal industry is in the spotlight for its higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions than crude oil.

Many insurers, particularly in Europe, have pulled back from insuring thermal coal, but Lloyd's of London insurers have continued to do so, industry sources say.

This is likely to change after Lloyd's issued its first climate strategy for its 100 syndicate members in December 2020, ending its previous hands-off approach to the issue.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Jan Harvey)

GREEN CAPITAL$M

UK
Local government pensions invest nearly £10bn in fossil fuels, data shows

Daisy Dunne
Tue, February 23, 2021, 

More than three-quarters of local authorities have made ‘climate emergency’ declarations(AP)

Nearly £10bn remains invested in fossil fuel companies through local government pensions, it has been revealed.

Figures obtained via freedom of information requests show that local authority pensions invested £9.9bn in fossil fuels in the financial year of 2019 to 2020.

That means that each of the 6.8 million people who depend on local government pension funds had at least £1,450 invested in fossil fuels.

The £9.9bn figure is a 40 per cent decrease on the amount invested in fossil fuels in 2017, the analysis finds. However, campaigners have urged councils to fully divest from fossil fuels and instead put money into renewable energy and other areas that benefit communities.

The three local authority pension funds with the largest investments in fossil fuels from 2019 to 2020 were Greater Manchester, Strathclyde and West Midlands, according to the data compiled by Friends of the Earth and Platform, a campaign group investigating the impacts of oil.

More than three-quarters of UK local authorities have made “climate emergency” declarations, and many have also pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2030, ahead of the national target of 2050.

Rianna Gargiulo, a divestment campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Declaring a climate emergency may garner good headlines but too often it seems to stop there.

“Councils can’t make a bold claim about saving the planet while continuing to invest in fossil fuels. Local authorities have the power and duty to ensure local workers not only have a pension for their retirement, but also a future worth retiring into.”

Friends of the Earth and Platform have created a dashboard to allow people to explore their local authority pension fund’s fossil fuel investments in more detail.

Some councils have already committed to fully divesting from fossil fuels, according to the campaign groups. These councils include Southwark, Islington, Lambeth, Waltham Forest and Cardiff.

Overall, the report shows that fossil fuels represent 3 per cent of the total value of the UK’s local government pension scheme.

Companies such as the oil majors BP and Shell and the mining firm BHP are among those to benefit most from local authority pension investments, according to the findings.

Green Party councillor Carla Denyer, who led a campaign that saw Bristol City Council become the first council to make a climate emergency declaration in 2018, said: “Divesting pension funds from fossil fuels is a simple and effective step that councils can take to reduce their own carbon emissions, protect their workers’ pensions, and send a message to the industry that it must change.

“The science is clear – to avoid catastrophic climate change, we must stop extracting fossil fuels. Councils across the country have acknowledged the ‘climate emergency’ but many, including Bristol, still fund fossil fuel extraction via their pension investments. This is not only environmentally irresponsible, it is also financially unwise.”

Experts have warned that the assets of fossil fuel companies could be left “stranded” – or economically unviable – as the world transitions to greener ways of producing electricity.

“Even if fund managers don’t care about climate change, they should still be divesting to protect the value of their investments,” said Ms Denyer.

Read More

Planning to build a new coal mine is like investing in a new fax machine – it takes us all backwards

GREEN CAPITAL$M

UK Budget 2021: Chancellor must

 'make finance green', say campaigners

Roger Harrabin - BBC environment analyst
Wed, February 24, 2021

City image overlaid with trees

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is being urged to use the Budget to change the financial system to better protect the environment.

One group wants him to impose a carbon tax and use the proceeds to protect the poor from high energy bills.

A second petition is calling for Bank of England rules to encourage banks not to invest in fossil fuels.

Mr Sunak is expected anyway to update the Bank’s mandate to include a greater focus on climate.

But campaigners want the new wording to stop the Bank from supporting fossil fuel firms through schemes such as its £20bn corporate bond purchase programme, which involves buying debt issued by firms such as Shell and BP.

The Bank responded to similar calls in January by saying that it has "an ambitious work programme on climate change, from the stress testing of the largest UK banks and insurers against climate-related financial risks through to working internationally with the central bank network for greening the financial system".

Bank of England criticised for financing carbon-intensive firms

£3bn UK climate finance to be spent on supporting nature

Some campaigners also want the Bank to work with the Treasury in funding a National Infrastructure Bank investing in sustainable industries.

The petition comes from Positive Money, a not-for-profit organisation claiming 65,000 supporters that was set up in the aftermath of the financial crisis and is funded by trusts and foundations.

One campaigner, Hannah Dewhirst, said: “The Bank and the financial system it regulates is currently funding catastrophic climate breakdown, which will again see ordinary people paying the price of bankers’ recklessness."

Anna Vickerstaff, another campaigner for the climate group 350.org, said: “British banks are the worst in Europe for funding fossil fuels.

“Banks operating in the UK are fuelling the climate crisis by financing fossil fuel projects from Argentina to Mozambique.”

The petition comes after MPs on the cross-party Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) last week called on the government to add climate and nature objectives to the Bank’s mandate.


Protests by Extinction Rebellion have previously taken place outside of the Bank of England.

They urged the chancellor to impose VAT reductions to encourage energy efficiency, the use of recycled materials and repair services.

The EAC also urged the government to begin scoping work on a carbon tax. That call was backed on Wednesday by a green organisation, the Zero Carbon Campaign.

The UK currently runs several taxes that affect carbon emissions, including Air Passenger Duty, the landfill tax and car tax.

The campaign asks the chancellor to simplify the “inconsistent” pricing system by placing a charge on every tonne of CO₂ emitted in the UK. Proceeds should be used to shield the poorest from the tax changes, it said.

The group believes this will trigger a transition to a clean economy by ensuring that individuals, businesses, manufacturers and policymakers choose less-polluting options.

The Treasury has been examining the relationship between tax and the environment, including a carbon tax. It has also been looking at a pay-as-you drive scheme for motorists to compensate for the loss of cash from petrol taxes as vehicles go electric.

Recent media reports suggest that officials may be moving away from the carbon tax proposal.

The Treasury will not discuss tax changes until the Budget, while the Bank of England declined to comment when it was approached by BBC News.

GREEN CAPITAL$M

UK

Chancellor urged to use upcoming Budget to stop banks from funding fossil fuels

Daisy Dunne
Wed, February 24, 2021

Campaigners have called on Rishi Sunak to use the upcoming Budget to stop banks from funding fossil fuels(REUTERS)

Campaigners have called on the chancellor Rishi Sunak to use the upcoming Budget to stop banks from funding the use of fossil fuels.

The call comes as a petition signed by nearly 65,000 members of the public urges the Bank of England to “cut off the money pipeline” for fossil fuel projects.

Mr Sunak is expected to make updates to the Bank of England’s mandate to include a greater focus on measures to tackle the climate crisis as part of announcements due next week.

However, campaign groups including 350.org, Positive Money and SumOfUs have said that any update should ensure that the Bank “gets its own house in order” by ending financial support for fossil fuels.

Anna Vickerstaff, from the climate campaign group 350.org, said: “British banks are the worst in Europe for funding fossil fuels, with Barclays and HSBC alone pouring more than £145bn into dirty energy projects since the UK signed the Paris Agreement in 2015.

“Banks operating in the UK are fuelling the climate crisis by financing fossil fuel projects from Argentina to Mozambique, projects that trample on indigenous rights, destroy livelihoods and irreparably damage communities.

“The Bank of England must cut the flow of finance to fossil fuels and channel funds towards rebuilding an economy that works for people, not polluters.”

The campaign groups urged the bank to stop supporting fossil fuels through programmes such as its £20bn corporate bond purchase scheme, which involves the bank buying debt issued by oil majors such as BP and Shell.

Campaigners also called on the Bank of England to do more to stop the banks it regulates from pouring money into fossil fuel projects.

Hannah Dewhirst, a campaigner at Positive Money, a group advocating for a more fair and sustainable banking system, said: “[Mr] Sunak has a huge opportunity in this Budget to make the Bank of England get its act together.

“By stopping billions flowing to dirty fossil fuels and investing in green job-creating projects instead, we can ensure Britain is leading by example ahead of the critical Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow this November.”

The call comes after a cross-party group of MPs last week said that the Bank’s remit should be updated to include “climate and nature objectives”.

The Environmental Audit Committee also recommended a range of measures that the government could take to put climate action at the heart of Covid-19 economic recovery plans.

These included VAT cuts on green home upgrade schemes and new incentives to encourage faster uptake of electric cars. The MPs also said the government should “begin scoping work on a carbon tax” as part of its drive to pursue a green recovery from the pandemic.

A spokesperson for the treasury said: “The UK has some of the most ambitious climate commitments in the world and we recently announced proposals to extend the UK’s global leadership in green finance.

“The government’s 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution also sets out £12bn in green investment, including for hydrogen and carbon capture technology, greener homes, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, walking and cycling infrastructure, flood defences and backing offshore wind to power every UK home by 2030.”

The Independent also approached the Bank of England for comment.

Read More

Climate crisis ‘biggest security threat humans have faced’, Sir David Attenborough tells UN