Companies that destroy the environment are having a difficult time getting loans from financial institutions. Banks have made huge profits financing destructive industries for instance mountaintop removal mining. Banks are now being held responsible for funding environmental destruction like this because of court decisions and protesting by environmental groups. Financial institutions are trying to keep business by quitting all lending to companies with environmental risk.
Banks reconsider lending for environmental destruction
It isn’t that hard for an Environment removal mining company to get its money. Credit is one thing financial institutions are considering more intensely 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. ”Limited and declining,” is the phrase it used to talk about mountaintop mining companies getting financing. They’re likely to be denied. The Wells Fargo decision is a thing other banking companies are doing also. These contain J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. The banking companies have all decided mountaintop mining corporations aren’t places to lend to, or could have special consideration.
Mining with mountaintop removal means you purchase cheap coal
Mountaintop mining is something the Appalachian region environmentalists do not like. In fact, they used an opportunity with the Obama administration on Monday to try and get it banned. The Associated Press said the group is preparing a rally for September 27. They even had high hopes in inviting the president to come with them. Forests have to be cut before mountaintop removal can start. Then explosives blast apart the rock. Coal is then exposed with a machine, 8 stories high, that scoops 800 feet of mountaintop away. The valleys are in for a surprise when all the additional dirt is dumped in them. This hurts the wildlife and covers up fresh streams. Operators argue it is a good thing for the economy. Electric power plants employ tens of thousands of jobs, and it is the best way to get coal. The Appalachian coal industry will have a Washington rally of its own on Sept. 15 to protest federal regulations it says remove mining jobs.
Some banks want to loan
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has wanted to stop financing for mountaintop removal mining through financial institutions since 2007. According to organicconsumers.org, the top four banking companies within the country have stopped lending to the leading mountaintop mining company in West Virginia, Massey Energy, because of these efforts. Massey Energy was involved in a mine explosion in April. This was the, Upper Big Branch mine, explosion that killed 29 miners. It seems like numerous banks are ready for this. Banks want to lend to them. Bloomberg data shows that the lead financers of Mountaintop removal mining are PNC and UBS. PNC finances mining corporations responsible for almost half of all mountaintops removal coal mined in the U.S..
Discover more information 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
