JP Morgan Chase chief calls for US to seize land for energy transition

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, said that ‘eminent domain’ — the right of the state to seize or appropriate private property for public use — may need to be invoked in order to unlock wind, solar, and grid projects necessary for a global transition to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels amid the climate crisis. 

He made the comments in an open letter to shareholders published on the bank’s website. 

Dimon said that much greater cooperation between governments and the private sector was needed to speed renewable energy deployment. 

He pointed out that while policies like the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) were helpful in encouraging investment, they were not yet delivering enough new support to wean economies off fossil fuels. 

“Massive global investment in clean energy technologies must be done and must continue to grow year-over-year… At the same time, permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way. 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 said. 

His comments on the need to improve the IRA and streamline permitting echoed those of wind industry giants such as Siemens Gamesa. 

Last year the manufacturing major produced a white paper which said that long and unpredictable permitting processes limit the viability of wind projects and transmission infrastructure, frequently choking off investment and the speedy roll out of new wind farms in the process. 

Dimon went on to evoke the Marshall Plan — the massive financial aid package given to help rebuild the West Germany economy by the US after the Second World War. 

He argued that a new version of the Marshall Plan for energy and food security should be launched by the US government but suggested oil and gas production could also play a role.