“stopping new oil and gas funding ‘that would be the road to hell for america’” jpmorgan chase ceo jamie dimon resoundingly assured lawmakers that his bank has no intention of stopping the financing of growth in the oil patch dimon who appeared with other top banking executives on capitol hill wednesday was asked by rep rashida tlaib the democrat of michigan to give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response to a handful of questions that included whether jpmorgan jpm has a policy against funding new oil and gas products “absolutely not and that would be the road to hell for america” said dimon whose bank is the largest us provider of loans and other capital to the energy sector sixty banks profiled in a report issued earlier this year funneled 1855 billion last year alone into the 100 companies doing the most to expand the oil cl00 and gas sector the report was from a group of environmental nonprofit organizations in their 13th annual banking on climate chaos release the biden administration has used its slim congressional majority to pass legislation on top of executive orders for a shift toward alternative energy that is intended to cut us carbon emissions by 50 by 2030 and hit netzero by 2050 the energy sector contributes about 40 of global heattrapping co2 three quarters of those emissions come from the six largest economies including the us and china at the top the world bank says republicans and some business executives maintain that while solar wind and nuclear icln can take up more of the nation’s energy needs traditional oil and gas needs to play a role due to high energy costs and to help foster us energy independence the release scrutinizing banks said that in the six years since the adoption of the paris agreement which set a goal for global warming of no more than 2 degrees celsius and ideally 15 degrees the world’s 60 largest banks financed fossil fuels with 46 trillion in loans and other capital the report showed that overall fossilfuel financing remains dominated by four us banks with dimon’s jpmorgan chase citigroup c  wells fargo wfc  and bank of america bac together accounting for one quarter of all fossil fuel financing identified over the last six years on wednesday lawmakers further questioned bank ceos on inflation and home ownership on the same day that the federal reserve delivered another anticipated interestrate hike republican members deemed the capitol hill appearances as unnecessary for the banking executives the ceos largely pushed back on capital requirements and lauded their role in keeping capital flowing as the economy navigates tricky territory as the world works its way back from the worst of the covid19 pandemic the ceos will testify before the us senate banking committee on thursday