JP Morgan. Citi. Morgan Stanley. Goldman Sachs. All of these banks have announced they will no longer finance oil and gas drilling projects in the Arctic, virtue signaling to environmental groups that have been pressing for the suspension of Arctic drilling altogether. Things recently heated up after the U.S. federal government proposed a new rule that would limit banks’ ability to refuse to finance Arctic drilling unless they can prove that the decision to refuse this financing was based on financial rather than political grounds. The proposal followed a push from Alaskan legislators who argued that some Native communities in Alaska depended on the oil and gas industry for their livelihoods, with Senator Dan Sullivan saying, “This trend of big banks blackballing Alaska investment is dangerous to Alaska’s economic future,” as quoted by the AP. Separately, the acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks noted that banks are supposed […]