Congratulations and Many Thanks for Direct Action

In March, PNC bank announced that they will limit their funding for mountain-top removal coal mining. This is a particularly egregious form of coal mining—laying waste to large areas and contaminating local water supplies. Earth Quaker Action Team (eqat.org), Rainforest Action Network (Ran.org), and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (ohvec.org) led the resistance to this kind of coal mining in Appalachia. Many thanks to those of you who were part of these actions.

PNC follows several other banks that began phasing out mountaintop removal financing at the end of 2014. J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, RBS, and UBS had all pledged to move away from financing such projects; banks that still continue to finance mountaintop removal coal mining include Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank. In addition to mounting protests over this method of coal extraction, coal mining in general is becoming less profitable.

EQAT conducted a five-year campaign to pressure PNC bank to end financing this method of coal mining. Their efforts increased over the years, expanding to include Friends from Pittsburg to Tampa, and even one action in the U.K. They are currently working on their next plan of action—stay tuned!