24 million urge Lloyd's and other insurers to drop Trans Mountain pipeline

Written by Adam Cadle

06/08/2020

One hundred and forty environmental, indigenous and activist groups, whose signatories represent more than 24 million members, are urging insurers including Lloyd’s of London to drop their coverage of the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline in an open letter.

Lloyd’s of London is the largest remaining insurer of the pipeline, insuring a total of $460m solely or jointly with other insurers.

The letter stated: “Insuring tar sands pipelines demonstrates that your company is choosing corporate greed over people, and it will pose significant reputational risks to your business. We urge you to rule out insuring Trans Mountain and exit the tar sands sector entirely.”

Last month, the pipeline had its 85th spill incident when 50,000 gallons of crude oil poured out of a pump station in British Columbia, threatening an aquifier that supplies the Sumas First Nation with drinking water.

"The Trans Mountain Expansion Project would multiply these risks tremendously," the letter stated. "The Canadian government, which owns Trans Mountain, is attempting to build a parallel pipeline that would ship more than 890,000 barrels of crude tar sands oil per year to the coast of British Columbia."

The letter addressed the CEOs of AIG, Chubb, Energy Insurance Limited, Liberty Mutual, Lloyd’s, Munich Re, Starr, Stewart Specialty Risk Underwriting, and W.R. Berkley.

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