(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) At a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., pressed the nation’s top financial institutions to stop servicing fossil fuel companies, leading JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to call the plan a “road to Hell for America.”
Rep. @RashidaTlaib challenges bank CEOs to agree to stop funding fossil fuels, is rejected by every single one
Jamie Dimon: “That would be the road to Hell for America” pic.twitter.com/U7yr6AbtyF
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 21, 2022
To reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and prevent catastrophic climate change, Tlaib said the bankers must agree to support “no new fossil fuel production starting today—so that’s, like, zero.”
Three CEOs—Jamie Dimon from JPMorgan Chase, Jane Fraser from Citigroup and Brian Moynihan from Bank of America—all “committed” to transitioning their lending and investment activities to achieve “net-zero in 2050,” according to Tlaib.
When Tlaib asked if their companies have policies in place to stop funding “new oil and gas products,” all three executives said they do not. Dimon gave an emphatic answer.
“Absolutely not, and that would be the road to Hell for America,” he said.
For his response, Tlaib lashed out at him about student loan debt, advising everyone who banks with JPMorgan Chase to “close their account.”
Fraser and Moynihan, however, tolerated her environmental ideology while rejecting the radical suggestion.
“We will continue to invest in and support clients who invest in fossil fuels and in helping them transition to cleaner energies,” Fraser said.
Moynihan followed the same script: “We are helping our clients make a transition, and that means we’re lending to both oil and gas companies and to new energy companies and helping monitor their course toward the standardrs you’re talking about.”
The five-hour hearing on Sept. 21 “touched on the economy and inflation,” according to C-SPAN, while spending the most time on COVID-19, climate change, hiring practices and other secondary issues as the nation’s economy heads toward a cliff.
Tlaib hoped to pressure the CEOs into pushing her political agenda, much like the Obama and Biden administrations have done with Operation Choke Point, a scheme to force financial institutions into debanking conservatives, fossil fuel companies and gun companies.
