Major international bank Santander claimed it would stop financing oil and gas fracking, then invested millions in exporting methane gas from the U.S. Gulf Coast, report Grist and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Then, Santander quietly expanded the policy loophole for supposed energy security reasons, opening up the possibility of even more investments beyond the $28 billion Santander helped raise for fracked gas last year. While not technically involving fracking operations themselves, the LNG export terminals rely on fracked gas.
The proliferation of LNG export facilities on the Gulf Coast are helping prop up gas companies while polluting the disproportionately poor and BIPOC communities where the terminals are sited. LNG exports raise gas prices for American families and businesses while boosting the profits of oil and gas companies with fracking operations in the Permian Basin; along with increased energy demand from AI operations and data centers, gas companies are relying on LNG for future profit maximization. (Santander: Grist and Bureau of Investigative Journalism; Gas industry bet on LNG: Reuters)