Watch: AOC in 2021 Shames Bank CEOs for Financing ‘New’ Oil Drilling

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking to attendees at a rally for Bernie Sanders in Counc
Flickr/Matt A.J.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in 2021 asked bank CEOs if they are “still financing new oil and gas production” to shame them into far-left compliance.

Ocasio-Cortez’s question centered around the Biden-supported International Energy Agency (IEA), which suggested the fossil fuel industry must be debanked.

“Just last week, the IEA announced that all new fossil fuel projects must be stopped immediately in order to meet the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade,” Ocasio-Cortez prefaced.

“So I just wanted to pose a couple of questions to kind of discern a little bit about the details of each of your firm’s commitments. So for each of you, if we could just kind of go down, yes or no — are each of your firms still financing new oil and gas production?” she asked.

Though many of the companies said they are financing new oil drilling projects, Credit Suisse has slashed funding provided to the oil, gas, and coal industries by 41 percent due to climate change activist-pushed theories of global warming.

Meanwhile, the White House on Thursday claimed oil drillers have “tools” to produce oil on 9,000 private land leases, omitting the fact that banks are cutting the feasibility of drilling on private lands. Biden has also terminated oil producers from utilizing federal lands.

“The president has been clear that he believes they have the tools they need…to go get more oil here in the United States,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in relation to American energy production.

But as Reuters reported, banks are reducing their “exposure” to the fossil fuel industry:

Switzerland’s second-biggest bank reduced its exposure to emissions it financed in the oil, gas and coal sector by 41% between 2020 and 2021, preliminary estimates in its sustainability report showed on Thursday, when it had some $2.6 billion in loans outstanding to such clients.

The report marks the first time the bank detailed its exposure to financing emissions from the fossil fuel sector, which it estimated at 21.9 tonnes of CO2 equivalent for 2021.

But investors and climate activists have repeatedly asked the bank to do more, with investors managing $2.4 trillion calling on Credit Suisse this week to take tougher climate action, including cutting its exposure to fossil fuel assets.

Despite Biden’s claims, American oil production is down drastically from 2019, the year before the pandemic. Oil production in 2022 is 12 million barrels or 8 percent less than in 2019. As a result, gas and diesel prices reached record highs Friday, impacting inflation and reducing the net wages of the American worker.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.