Climate Activists to Converge on TD Bank for Investing in Petroleum

Residents and students of Middletown and across Connecticut are joining with Capitalism vs. the Climate for a mile-and-a-half march Saturday to the TD Bank branch on Washington Street.

According to Capitalism vs. the Climate, the group organizes non-hierarchically and takes direct action in solidarity with communities most impacted by the climate crisis.

Every other Saturday, Capitalism vs. the Climate pickets TD Bank locations around Connecticut in protest of their investments in the Keystone XL pipeline. So far, they have demonstrated at TD Bank branches in Hartford and New Haven.

Demonstrators will stand in front of the TD Bank branch holding a large banner saying “No Keystone XL Pipeline: Don’t Invest in Climate Catastrophe.” Protesters will hand out flyers to TD customers asking them to move their money to local credit unions in protest of TD Bank’s investments in the pipeline this weekend.

Participants are meeting at 10:15 a.m. at High and Washington streets in Middletown and will walk to TD Bank at 911 Washington Street, a trek expected to take a half-hour.

“TD Bank is one of the largest funders of the climate-changing Keystone XL pipeline,” said Capitalism vs. the Climate member Dan Fischer. “We ask their customers to demand TD Bank divest from the dirty tar sands and invest in energy efficiency.”

“TD Bank is one of the largest financial backers of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport the carbon-rich and leak-prone tar sands from Alberta, according to capitalismvsclimate.wordpress.com. Tar sands spell “game over for the climate” and add 120 ppm CO2 to the atmosphere, according to NASA’s leading scientist James Hansen. 

Downstream from the extraction in Alberta, indigenous Fort Chipewyan communities experience water contamination, increases in rare cancers and other impacts which Mike Mecredi describes as “slow industrial genocide," according to capitalismvsclimate.wordpress.com.

The Capital Vs. Climate website says the pipeline threatens homes and ecosystems from Montana to Texas. People like 78-year-old Texan grandmother Eleanor Fairchild have been arrested for “trespassing” on their own land, trying to protect their homes from being destroyed. 

TD holds 24,391,713 shares in TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline. TD loaned $993 million to the pipeline project between 2007 and 2010, according to capitalismvsclimate.wordpress.com.