Tell Citi: Stop financing Environmental Racism in the Gulf South!

Citibank

The U.S. Gulf South – mainly Texas and Louisiana – is facing an unprecedented build-out of methane oil and gas export terminals with over 25 new toxic projects proposed. These export terminals will worsen existing industrial pollution facing local communities of color; threaten our ability to meet domestic and international climate goals; increase home energy costs in the US, and irreparably damage the Gulf Coast ecosystem.

And despite their net-zero commitments, Wall Street banks have put over $139 billion into dangerous methane gas projects since 2016. In the same period, Citibank has pumped over $8.6 billion into the world’s top methane gas companies and projects, making the bank the second-largest methane gas financier in the world. Meanwhile, Gulf communities contend with intensifying hurricanes, torrential flooding, severe drought, and the risk of explosion from these dangerous terminals.

We know Citi has already financed at least three methane gas projects in the Gulf South in Hackberry, LA; Corpus Christi, TX; and Sabine Pass, LA. Now it’s time to say: no more! Without financing, these terminals can’t be built. Help us stop Sempra Energy’s Port Arthur, TX terminal, Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles, LA terminal, Tellurian’s Driftwood, LA terminal, Next Decade’s Rio Grande terminal, TX, and all the polluting facilities threatening the Gulf South and our climate.

Sign the petition to Citi’s leadership: stop all financial services to methane gas (LNG) companies and all fossil fuel financing.

Co-sponsored by Stop the Money Pipeline and Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE).

To: Citibank
From: [Your Name]

I am deeply concerned about Citi’s fossil fuel financing.

I am particularly concerned that Citi continues to claim that it is “aligned with the science,” when Citi has refused to align its business practices with what the science is demanding: an end to financing for companies that are expanding coal, oil, and gas.

Since 2016, Citi has funneled nearly $9 billion into LNG companies and projects, which makes it the second largest methane gas financier in the world.

One of the top recipients of Citi’s petrodollars is Sempra, the energy corporation responsible for Port Arthur LNG, one of the three methane gas export projects surrounding John and his neighbors. In addition to the LNGs, Port Arthur also contends with America’s and one of the world’s largest oil refineries (Motiva), Texas’s largest emitter of sulfur dioxide (a Koch Industries operation called Oxbow Calcining), Total refinery (third highest emitter of benzene in the USA), Valero (over 600 air quality violations), and numerous chemical facilities.

As for Sempra, it’s responsible for Cameron LNG - a massive operation just across the Louisiana border - as well as three more proposed LNGs on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

I am even further alarmed by the fact that Citi does not currently include the underwriting of bonds in their climate policy and financed emissions reductions targets. It’s not good enough that Citi is just considering adopting an underwriting policy. In order to avoid serious catastrophic climate impacts, Citi must immediately cease underwriting corporate bonds for the top companies expanding the coal, oil, and gas industry as outlined in the “Toxic Bonds Report: How banks are breaking their Net Zero pledges to finance climate chaos” report released by the Toxic Bonds Initiative and the Bank on Our Future coalition.

We believe climate action and racial justice are one in the same. Nowhere is that more evident than the Gulf Coast. Big banks like Citi who make bold climate promises cannot be allowed to continue funding projects like Port Arthur LNG or companies like Sempra - and many others - that clearly perpetuate environmental racism, climate destruction and ruin the health of people in vulnerable communities.

I demand that Citi stop stalling on the climate emergency and update its 2030 climate targets to close the coal loopholes, set a target for its underwriting and to end financing for fossil fuel expansion.