A Seattle City Council proposal to pull billions in city funds out of Wells Fargo to protest the bank’s role as a lender to the Dakota Access Pipeline will be heard by a council committee.
A proposal to pull about $3 billion in city of Seattle money out of Wells Fargo to protest the bank’s role as a lender for the Dakota Access Pipeline will be heard by a committee of the Seattle City Council on Wednesday.
The bill, co-sponsored by council members Kshama Sawant and Tim Burgess, will be heard at 9 a.m. before the Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods and Finance Committee. Anti-pipeline demonstrators will rally at City Hall at 8:30 a.m.
A rally against the pipeline drew hundreds in Seattle last week when President Trump issued an executive order calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue the last easement needed for work to be completed on the more than 1,000-mile-long oil pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois.
Crews are on standby in hotel rooms, waiting for the easement, and could finish the pipeline within two weeks if they work around the clock. On Tuesday, North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said the Army Corps of Engineers was ordered to allow construction of the Dakota Access pipeline to proceed.
About the DAPL protest
The Trump administration has advanced the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipeline projects. Seattle Times reporter Lynda V. Mapes and photographer Alan Berner traveled to North Dakota last year 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.
- March 28: What the completed Dakota Access pipeline means for key players.
- Feb. 23: Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp closed; 46 holdouts arrested.
- Feb. 22: Preparing to leave, Standing Rock protesters ceremonially burn camp.
- Feb. 13: Judge rejects tribes’ bid to halt Dakota Access Pipeline; feds plan to shut down protest camp.
- Feb. 1: Hundreds rally as the Seattle City Council considers divesting from Wells Fargo because of its role as a Dakota Access Pipeline lender.
- Jan. 24, 2017: Donald Trump signs executive orders advancing the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe says it will push back.
- Dec. 4, 2016: Tribes celebrate as Corps rejects Dakota Access pipeline easement
- Nov. 21: Washington tribes urge that Obama stop, reroute Dakota Access Pipeline
- Nov. 12: Hundreds rally in Tacoma against Dakota Access Pipeline
- Live updates from from Seattle Times journalists on the scene Oct. 26, 27 and 28.
- Oct. 25: Tribes in Washington state call on President Obama to improve federal consultations over infrastructure projects
- Oct. 24: Citing treaty claim, protesters occupy land a rancher recently sold to pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners.
- See photos from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
Meanwhile, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe vows to sue to block construction in court. The U.S. Army Corps has begun an environmental review of the project, requested by the tribe, which the tribe wants to see completed.
Opponents remaining in protest camps near the drill pad have vowed to stay, even as cleanup work begins at the camps before expected flooding by the Missouri River.
The bill before the Seattle City Council would also create requirements to take social-justice principals into account when awarding city contracts.
Wells Fargo manages more than $3 billion of the city’s operating account, including a biweekly payroll of $30 million for about 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 Ong, with Wells Fargo corporate communications.