What Really Stopped Shell’s Drilling Rig | Equal Exchange
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What Really Stopped Shell’s Drilling Rig

Phyllis_Robinson
October 6, 2015

Last August, Equal Exchangers Meghan, Casey, Jim, Ellen, and Lincoln joined the ranks of hundreds of other activists doing their part to stop Shell Oil from drilling in the Arctic.  (If you didn’t have a chance to read their gripping stories of the Shell No! Greenpeace action in Portland, click here to do so!)
So, congratulations to our Equal Exchange West Coast team, and all the other kayaktivists, general activists, and other leaders for winning the fight!  Shell has abandoned plans to drill for extreme oil off the coast of Alaska!!
In the end, of course, it wasn’t actually a boat, a petition, or even a swipe of President Obama’s pen that Shell claimed had changed their plans and stopped them in their tracks:  it was economics, pure and simple.  Costs ran over and investors dried up.
Equal Exchange, Divest-Invest, and a Coalition of 18 other organizations, are now calling on everyone, whether you’re a thousandaire, millionaire, or only have a couple dollars in your pocket — to pledge to be among tens of thousands of others saying no the fossil fuel economy and yes to our clean energy future. When we all act together, we’re unstoppable and another world is possible.

If you’re ready to beat the NEXT extreme energy project — whether it’s Exxon’s plan to drill the Russian Arctic or a local fracking well in your town — it’s time to own what you own, get out of the dig, dump & burn economy, and hit them where it hurts (in their wallets) by pledging to:

Make no new investments in the top 200 oil, gas, and coal companies
Sell any existing assets tied to these oil, gas, and coal investments within 3-5 years.
Roll a portion of investments into climate solutions like clean energy, sustainable agriculture, local business, and many more.

Click here to sign the pledge and be counted.

Divestment and clean energy investment are sweeping the planet. In the last 2 weeks, Celebrities like Leo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffulo and more have divested. While institutions and leaders have pledged to move their money – over 2.6 Trillion and counting! – out of fossil fuels and into the clean energy economy.
The latest big news was Mayor Bill Deblasio of New York who is beginning to move the pension funds of America’s largest city out of dirty fossil fuels and into clean energy instead.
If you’re ready to join these leaders from the stage and screen to the streets of New York by owning what YOU own, Click here to sign the Divest Invest pledge with great partners like Divest Invest Individual, Equal Exchange, Daily Kos, 350.org and more.

Read more about Equal Exchange’s climate justice initiative, and how you can help, here!

Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/28/shell-ceases-alaska-arct...
http://mashable.com/2015/09/22/leo-dicaprio-fossil-fuel-divestment/#6ekQ...
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/29/new-york-city-mayor-pushes-pension-funds-...