The Tampa Bay Divestment Coalition (TBDC) consists of 45 local community organizations, primarily with the intention of encouraging divestment from companies that profit from fossil fuels. J.P. Morgan and Chase have become a major target of criticism locally through their funding of the Sabal Trail Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline currently under construction. The pipeline spans about 515 miles in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. It goes under the Suwannee and Crystal rivers in places and cutting through the Floridan Aquifer system, the state's primary source of drinking water.
“These companies that build these pipelines that J.P. Morgan and Chase is funding are egregious,” said Justin Morris of the TBDC. “They do things like during this process just a couple months ago, it was documented that workers were illegally dumping drilling fluids from creating this pipeline, a chemical called Bentonite, which creates lung cancer. They basically dumped it into running water.”
J.P. Morgan and Chase also happens to be a major financial partner of the city of St. Petersburg, and there have been calls for city officials to put the city's money elsewhere.
Morris also criticized the bank's use of eminent domain in building the Sabal Trail Pipeline, which saw those affected forced to sell their property or face lengthy and expensive legal battles.
While rainy weather kept Saturday's protest from reaching its full potential, the TBDC plans to hold similar protests and other days of action in the coming weeks to continue to push for St. Pete's divestment.
This article appears in Jul 6-13, 2017.