Four arrested as concerned Florida residents demonstrate opposition to investments in Transcanada/ Keystone XL Pipeline
See corporate media coverage from Palm Beach Daily News here.
An activist is taken into custody by Palm Beach police during a protest on Royal Palm Way.
West Palm Beach, FL – Monday, November 19, 2012 – Dozens of protesters with Everglades Earth First! and supporters of the Tar Sands Blockade in East Texas are rallied today on Palm Beach island, demonstrating opposition to the construction of the Gulf Coast portion of the Keystone XL Pipeline. As the nation rebounds from life-threatening droughts, raging wildfires, devastating hurricanes and ever rising temperatures, we wish to draw attention to investors financially responsible for the construction of a pipeline supporting the world’s most devastating fossil fuels project, TransCanada’s Alberta tar sands.
Their first target was Deutsche Bank, an investment firm with a client services center at 400 Royal Palm Way, West Palm Beach, FL, 33480. Deutsche Bank has billions of dollars invested in TransCanada’s expansion of the Alberta tar sands project. Protesters directed their concerns about the bank’s well-documented involvement with TransCanada to managing director James Zahringer, and demanded that the Palm Beach office refuse to facilitate any future investments in Big Oil, starting with the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Recently acquired client advisors at Deutsche, Gregory Barr and Jeffrey Tompkins, also heard concerns over unethical investments facilitated by their firm.
Next door was CitiBank, official lender of over US$12 billion to TransCanada. Protesters also expressed their outrage with CitiBank, and all other lenders pumping billions into the pockets of TransCanada as they pollute the earth, dislocate and poison innocent people, and order officers to taze, mace and torture protesters.
These banking institutions and dozens like them are tightening Big Oil’s stranglehold on the livelihood of our planet, destroying homes, homelands, forests and waterways without consequence.
Both Deutsche Bank and Citibank have also gained notoriety for their impressive accumulations of foreclosed homes, totaling thousands annually in Palm Beach County alone.
One protestor who was arrested inside the bank today had this to say: “Bankrolling Big Oil’s shameful operations is just another drop in the bucket for unethical institutions such as these. Clearly, Deutsche and Citibank have no concern for the lives of Palm Beach County residents, Texans, or any one else. Through their operations, they are threatening the survival of both current and future generations of life.”
These actions coincided with demonstrations in over 40 cities worldwide.