Banks are starting to have second thoughts about making loans to corporations that destroy the environment. Banks have made huge profits financing destructive industries for instance mountaintop removal mining. Environmental groups and court decisions have worked together for making that change. Banking companies are held to the funding they do for environment destruction companies for instance this. Financial institutions try to keep business by quitting all lending to businesses with environmental risk.
Banks reconsider lending for environmental destruction
It is not that hard for a Mountaintop removal mining business to get its money. Credit is one thing banking companies are thinking about more heavily as to where it will go. This means that climate change and other environmental issues for instance water quality standards are making the lending decision for banking companies harder, says the New York Times. Recently Wells Fargo made a statement about “considerable attention and controversy” related to mountaintop removal mining. It described mountaintop mining business funding as “limited and declining.” The decision by Wells Fargo emulates comparable policy shifts by Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, Financial institution of America and Citibank. All these banks vowed to either reconsider lending to mountaintop mining corporations or to discontinue funding them altogether.
Mountaintop removal mining is the only reason coal is nevertheless cheap
Appalachian region environmentalists used Monday to try and convince the Obama administration that mountaintop mining should be outlawed. On September 27, you can expect to see a rally by the group where the president was invited, reports the Associated Press. Forests have to be cut before mountaintop removal can begin. Huge rock has to be exploded. Next you have to have a special machine to scoop up 800 feet of mountaintop, but the machine has to be 8 stories high. Coal could be shown then. The earth left behind is dumped to the valleys below, covering streams and wildlife habitat. This may be the cheapest way to get coal which gives tens of thousands of jobs to the economy, operators say. The Appalachian coal industry is hoping no to lose numerous jobs with this. It plans to have a rally in Washington on September 15 to show its support for coal.
Making these loans great for other banks
Since 2007, bank funding for mountaintop removal mining corporations has been a target of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). The top mountaintop mining company in West Virginia is called Massey Energy. As a result of the RAN efforts, the top four banks in the country have stopped lending to it. Massey Energy was involved within the Upper Large Branch mine explosion that killed 29 miners in April. But other banks are eager to fill the financing void left behind. PNC and UBS are doing great now. They’re the two leaders, as outlined by Bloomberg data, of mountaintop removal mining. Almost half of the Mountaintop removal coal within the United States of America is financed by PNC.
Discover more info on this subject
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/08/31/business/energy-environment/31coal.html?_r=1 and dbk
Associated Press
google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iRFjIvp7yDpMnistp_aolQIRAj_QD9HTVS4O0
Organic Consumers
organicconsumers.org/articles/article_21396.cfm
