Photo: St. Anthony, an unincorporated community in Morton County, N.D. (Kristina Barker / The New York Times)
The city should cut its ties with Wells Fargo Bank in part because of the bank’s investment in the Dakota Access Pipeline, Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant says.
Legislation introduced by Sawant requests that Seattle’s mayor refrain from banking or conducting other business with Wells Fargo Bank for at least one year, when the city’s current contract with the bank ends Dec. 31, 2018.
Sawant said she would be glad to act sooner, if the community wants it and there is a way to sever the relationship more quickly. The bank is embroiled in multiple scandals.
The legislation was assigned to the Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods & Finance Committee Tuesday, and is expected to be brought up for discussion in January.
Wells Fargo currently manages more than $3 billion of the city’s operating account, including a biweekly payroll of $30 million for approximately 12,000 employees. The average daily balance in the city’s account with Wells Fargo is about $73 million.
Wells Fargo along with 16 other banks, is a lender to the Dakota Access Pipeline project. Wells Fargo has $120 million in a $2.5 billion credit agreement funding the pipeline project, according to Jessica R. Ong of Wells Fargo Corporate Communications.
Pipeline construction is on pause after the U.S. Army Corps did not provide a final easement required for the project and ordered a full environmental review of the pipeline, including consideration of alternative routes. The pipeline is intended to carry oil from western North Dakota to Illinois to connect to other pipelines and refineries.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has opposed the project, arguing it threatens the tribe’s drinking water and sacred sites.
Thousands of demonstrators, including members of Washington tribes also fighting fossil fuel projects, have gathered at protests camps near the pipeline’s crossing at the Missouri River.
Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2515 or lmapes@seattletimes.com
About the DAPL protest
Seattle Times reporter Lynda V. Mapes and photographer Alan Berner traveled to North Dakota to cover the protests against the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline. Here are recent stories to help you understand the conflict:
- Background stories:Here’s a primer on the pipeline project, including the key players on all sides, a brief history of broken treaty promises and a closer look at the courtroom battle. And here’s what we’re reading related to the controversy.
- 4: Tribes celebrate asCorps rejects Dakota Access pipeline easement
- 21:Washington tribes urge that Obama stop, reroute Dakota Access Pipeline
- 14:Dakota Access Pipeline put on hold as government studies tribe’s concerns
- 12:Hundreds rally in Tacoma against Dakota Access Pipeline
- 2:Obama says Army Corps is looking at an alternative pipeline route
- 28: New standoffebbs without violence
- Live updatesfrom from Seattle Times journalists on the scene 26, Oct. 27 and Oct. 28
- 25:Tribes in Washington state call on President Obama to improve federal consultations over infrastructure projects
- 24:Citing treaty claim, protesters occupy land a rancher recently sold to pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners
- 19:The Standing Rock council votes to let protesters use tribal land near the occupation site for shelter during the brutal winter
- 18:Northwest tribes’ victories over fossil-fuel projects inspire pipeline protesters
- Jerry Large:Dakota Access Pipeline fight is a product of ignored rights
- Read moreSeattle Times stories about Standing Rock.
- See photos from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests
