Finance executive suggests seizing private property to ‘fight climate change’

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon last week suggested the federal government seize private property to fight “climate change”.

In his annual letter to shareholders, Dimon insisted that “[m]assive global investment in clean energy technologies must be done and must continue to grow year-over-year.”

In order to achieve this, continued Dimon, the government may need to seize property from private citizens — what is legally referred to as “eminent domain”.

“At the same time, permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way,” wrote Dimon. “We may even need to evoke eminent domain — we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives.”

Dimon also railed against Americans who oppose carbon taxes, a measure applauded by the World Economic Forum which would likely tax people for every ton of carbon emitted, including driving, and farmers who raise livestock.

“I also want to express exasperation with some of my fellow citizens who don’t pay the taxes they owe on the order of $600 billion a year, who won’t consider sensible policy measures like a carbon tax to stem climate change and who sometimes seem to only like democracy when the voters agree with them,” Dimon wrote.

But a carbon tax, which Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau implemented in 2019, has proved to be a boon for the federal government while lightening taxpayers' pockets. It manifests itself in various ways for Canadian citizens, one of which is a hike in gasoline prices. Due to the tax, provinces will be charging their residents an extra 11 cents per liter of gasoline, up from 8.8 cents. By next year, the average Manitoba household will be worse off by C$299. The average Ontario household will be worse off by C$360. The average Saskatchewan household will be worse off by C$390 and the average Alberta household will be worse off by C$671.  

JP Morgan Chase was one of six major banks served with civil investigative demands by 19 state attorneys general in October to get a closer look at how the bank’s climate ideology may be impacting its service to customers. Other banks served by the attorneys general included Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo, all of whom are involved in the United Nations’ Net-Zero Banking Alliance. The project’s aim is that by 2050, the world’s largest banks will commit to exclusively investing in or lending to companies that are “environmentally friendly”.