Quakers and Allies Say “Never Vanguard” at Concurrent Events Held Today in Oregon and Pennsylvania
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Eve Gutman, EQAT Media and Research Coordinator, eve@eqat.org
Vanguard Is The World’s Largest Investor In Fossil Fuels
SALEM, OR and MALVERN, PA — Today, Earth Quaker Action Team & 350 Salem OR held concurrent Coast-to-Coast “Never Vanguard” climate actions in Oregon and Pennsylvania.
The event in Salem, OR, was held at a Chase bank. JP Morgan Chase is a major financier of fossil fuel companies like TC Energy, and Vanguard is the largest shareholder in Chase. The second action took place at Vanguard’s corporate headquarters in Malvern, PA.
The actions included an intergenerational group of Quakers from across North America, who are currently meeting in Oregon for the annual Friends General Conference Gathering.
The concurrent actions follow many months of protests, thousands of letters and phone calls, and other actions to push Vanguard to address the harmful environmental impacts of its investments.
“Because Vanguard is the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels, we know that our efforts to push Vanguard to do better are connected to campaigns across the globe,” said Eileen Flanagan, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Earth Quaker Action Team. “In place after place, local communities fight to defend their land, air, and water from corporate greed. This is true in Oregon, where Quakers from across the country have gathered and are taking action with local communities, and it is true in Pennsylvania, where protestors are simultaneously taking action at Vanguard’s global headquarters.”
“Financial institutions that enable climate chaos by supporting the fossil fuel industry, big timber, and industrial agriculture must be challenged,” said Laurie Dougherty, Co-Coordinator 350 Salem OR. “It is particularly outrageous to increase fossil fuel infrastructure in the face of the climate crisis. We demand an end to Vanguard’s investment in expansion of the GTN gas pipeline passing through Oregon. We also demand an end to Vanguard’s investment in Covanta, the global waste incineration corporation that operates the Covanta Marion incinerator, spewing greenhouse gasses and toxic emissions just north of Salem.”
Vanguard is the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels. Vanguard is heavily invested in TC Energy, the company behind the proposed GTN Xpress gas pipeline expansion project.
Vanguard also invests in the parent company of Covanta, which burns municipal and medical waste. While the community of Chester, PA fights a Covanta incinerator nearby, in Brooks, OR, a community of largely of Latinx farmer workers is dealing with pollution from the Covanta incinerator that burns municipal and medical waste there. Vanguard is also the largest investor in Weyerhaeuser, a massive corporation which owns & clearcuts millions of acres of industrial timber plantations across the Pacific Northwest.
Photos from the events will be available at the links below shortly after the events.
Additional information about the “Never Vanguard” campaign can be found here.