Divest Arlington
The Arlington County Board and Carla de la Pava, Arlington County Treasurer
Our Revolution Arlington, the Sierra Club - Mt. Vernon Group, the Arlington Green Party, and ARL ReInvest call on the Arlington County Government to establish a socially responsible banking ordinance and divest our county from Wells Fargo Bank.
Arlington, Virginia, strives to be a green, sustainable community, with a goal of lowering its carbon footprint 75% by 2050 and a public commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. Furthermore, Arlington describes itself as a welcoming and inclusive community, where diversity is not simply tolerated but appreciated and celebrated. Unfortunately our county banks with Wells Fargo. The same Wells Fargo that:
-is funding two fracked gas pipelines which would run through Virginia: the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines; together, these projects would effectively double the greenhouse gas emissions of all Virginia's power plants combined.
-has millions invested in the Dakota Access Pipeline and four proposed tar sands projects: TransMountain, the Enbridge Line 3 expansion, Energy East, and the Keystone XL. Tar Sands oil not only produces 17% more carbon than crude, its production, transportation, and use poses significant threats to local ecosystems, water supplies, and low-income communities where much of the infrastructure is built.
-enables the expansion of private prisons and immigrant detention centers by financing the Geo Group and CoreCivic, the largest private prison companies in the world, which stand to gain most from a continuation of the War on Drugs, mandatory minimums, and harsh immigration policies.
-had to pay a settlement of $175 million for discriminatory practices (redlining), where tens of thousands of African American and Hispanic borrowers were charged higher fees and rates, while white borrowers with similar credit were offered prime loans.
-used a predatory business model that encouraged workers to cheat customers and open more than two million fraudulent accounts.
-failed (in March 2017) a federal rating under the Community Reinvestment Act, which tests a bank's responsiveness to the needs of low and moderate income residents; a test that 98% of U.S. lenders pass.
Help Arlington make our financial practices in line with our community values, including those of protecting the environment and racial and economic justice. Tell the County Treasurer and Board that the time has come to develop a socially responsible banking ordinance as a step towards cutting ties with Wells Fargo and preventing such future financial relationships that go against our community's values.
Sponsored by
To:
The Arlington County Board and Carla de la Pava, Arlington County Treasurer
From:
[Your Name]
Carla de la Pava, Arlington County Treasurer
Arlington County Board
2100 Clarendon Blvd. Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22201
RE: Petition to Divest Arlington from Wells Fargo Bank
Dear Treasurer de la Pava and Board Members:
We applaud Arlington’s climate leadership, exemplified in the Community Energy Plan to reduce the county’s greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2050, and the Climate Action Resolution of June 20, 2017, affirming the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. Already, Arlington’s emissions have dropped 18% between 2007 and 2015. In accordance with this progress, as well as keeping in line with official statements in favor of a welcoming, inclusive community in which bigotry is not tolerated, we urge you to divest Arlington from Wells Fargo Bank.
Consider:
While other banks have backed out of future fossil fuel projects, Wells Fargo is funding two fracked gas pipelines which would run through Virginia: the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines. Together, these two projects are the equivalent of adding 46 coal plants or 33 million passenger vehicles to the roads, functionally doubling the greenhouse gas emissions of all of Virginia’s current power plants combined. Just as egregious, these pipelines strip property rights from landowners and place the known dangers of fracked gas -- including contaminated groundwater and exposure to carcinogens -- disproportionately in low-income communities.
On June 14, 2017, federal Judge James Boasberg ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers "did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice" before issuing permits to build the Dakota Access Pipeline under the Missouri River, just upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux. As major investors in DAPL, Wells Fargo has a direct responsibility for these environmental risks and violations of indigenous sovereignty.
Wells Fargo has committed to an expansion of DAPL's southern end, as well as four more tar sands pipelines: TransMountain, the Enbridge Line 3 expansion, Energy East, and the Keystone XL. Tar Sands oil not only produces 17% more carbon than crude, its production, transportation, and use poses significant threats to local ecosystems, water supplies, and low-income communities where much of the infrastructure is built.
Wells Fargo continues to lend to private prison companies Geo Group and CoreCivic, the very companies which stand to profit most from increasing mass incarceration and detention of our immigrant neighbors. These companies have spent years lobbying for policies like mandatory minimums, "three strikes" laws, and prison population quotas -- policies which have directly contributed to the criminalization of low-income and minority communities. CoreCivic and Geo Group have $132.5 million and $900 million lines of credit, respectively, with Wells Fargo, as well as millions more in term loans and bonds.
Wells Fargo paid over $175 million in damages to the Justice Department, for their history of charging higher interest rates to black and Latino customers and pushing them into subprime loans.
Wells Fargo’s unreasonably high sales quotas pressured employees to create two million fake accounts, again leading to a multi-million dollar settlement.
Seven pending lawsuits in five states, including Virginia, accuse Wells Fargo of illegally changing the terms of borrowers' home mortgages without their knowledge or consent.
Wells Fargo failed its 2017 rating under the federal Community Reinvestment Act, which tests whether lenders are meeting the needs of low-to-moderate-income residents -- a test which 98% of banks pass.
This track record puts Wells Fargo in direct contradiction to the values that Arlington has championed. Our county ought to invest in ways that affirm its commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement and the environment, and to an equitable and just society, by taking all necessary steps to cut ties with Wells Fargo. Furthermore, the financial board should develop -- with community input and consent -- a socially responsible banking ordinance, to prevent our county from entering into partnerships with similarly dubious entities in the future.