Hundreds Rally Outside Wells Fargo Shareholder Meeting in Des Moines

Des Moines, IA -- A crowd of activists rallied today outside of a meeting of Wells Fargo’s shareholders and executives to call on the bank to drop its financing of dirty and destructive fossil fuel projects.

From 2015 to 2017, Wells Fargo provided over $4.6 billion in financing for extreme fossil fuels, and is a key funder of the companies behind the controversial Dakota Access pipeline and the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The bank has also attracted public outrage with recent scandals regarding its discriminatory lending practices, funding for the gun industry, private prisons, and more.

"The widespread resistance to dirty fossil fuel projects is only growing, and it's time for Wells Fargo and other big banks to read the writing on the wall,” said Sierra Club Campaign Representative Ben Cushing. “As long as Wells Fargo continues to fund tar sands and other extreme fossil fuel projects, they are complicit in the the destruction these projects do to our water, our communities, and our climate. The movement to hold them accountable for their investments in these dangerous practices isn't going anywhere.”

“By funding Dakota Access, Wells Fargo is supporting a grave threat to the drinking water of Des Moines and the health of the land and people of Iowa,” said Sierra Club Iowa Chapter Chair Carolyn Raffensperger. “We want them to know Iowans are watching and calling on them to invest in infrastructure and projects that add to the well-being of our communities, not dangerous, destructive pipelines.”