Hollywood celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, and Jane Fonda are protesting a Canadian natural gas pipeline that they claim represents a threat to the climate and indigenous rights.
Their demand to defund the pipeline comes as energy prices are soaring around the world, putting a squeeze on working class families and sending a dire ripple effect throughout the global economy. The pipeline at the center of the fight is the Coastal GasLink, which transports natural gas across the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia to the Pacific coast.
Celebrities are putting pressure on Los Angeles-based City National Bank, citing the bank’s parent company, the Royal Bank of Canada, which is a major investor in the pipeline.
“Our ‘bank to the stars’ is aiding projects that violate Indigenous rights,” they said an open letter to City National and RBC. “We refuse to allow our industry’s bank of choice to be unethical at any level, to accelerate the climate crisis, or to facilitate the abuse the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
They are claiming the pipeline violates the territory and waters of the Wet’suwet’en Peoples.
Thank you to everyone who signed this. The time to defund @CoastalGasLink is now. @RBC must withdraw from the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline now and stop financing fossil fuels. @CityNational Bank must protect its clients and honor their values. https://t.co/JVrCia9bhH
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) March 17, 2022
Among the other Hollywood signatories are Joaquin Phoenix, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Ben Stiller, David Fincher, Ava DuVernay, and Amy Schumer.
Fossil fuel pipelines have become a favorite target of left-wing celebrity activists. Last year, they successfully pressured President Joe Biden to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, effectively killing thousands of jobs with the stroke of a pen.
They are also demanding the killing of the Dakota Access and the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline replacement.
Pipelines are among the most efficient and cost-effective way of transporting fossil fuels. Without pipelines, oil and natural gas would have to be transported on trucks, which makes them more expensive to consumers.
Biden administration secretary of energy Jennifer Granholm has even admitted that the best way to transport fuel across parts of the country is through pipelines.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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