Rainforest Action Network

Groups criticize bank for lending $3.2 billion to Duke Energy for new coal plants

Charlotte, NC-Activists with Rainforest Action Network (RAN) will be joined by Appalachian residents, including retired coal miners, at Bank of America's Annual General Shareholder Meeting today to protest the bank's role as a leading financier of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining and new coal-fired power plants.

Despite reaping publicity the past two years for its climate change commitments, including its recent signing of the Carbon Principles, Bank of America was part of a lending syndicate that provided $3.2 billion in financing to Duke Energy. The loan will enable Duke to move forward with plans to build several controversial coal-fired power plants in North Carolina and Indiana.

Coal-fired power plants are responsible for nearly a third of the nation's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In 2006, emissions by power companies in Bank of America's utility sector portfolio totaled 715 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), equal to more than 10 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions for that year.

"Unlike the credit crisis, we can't bail out a dead planet," said Rebecca Tarbotton, director of RAN's Global Finance Campaign. "Bank of America's reckless investments in new coal-fired power plants are locking in an outdated energy infrastructure that threatens our climate, our communities, and our economy."

In addition, Bank of America has financial relationships with each of the top five producers of MTR coal. These companies are responsible for nearly half the total MTR coal production of the top 20 most active MTR coal companies. The EPA estimates that more than a million acres across Appalachia have already been lost to MTR, and that if the practice continues unabated, an additional 1.4 million acres of forest will be lost by the end of the decade. Mountaintop removal flattens mountain ranges and transforms healthy mountain woodlands into toxic sludge and rubble that has clogged more than 700 miles of rivers and streams. The large-scale destruction forces animal species from their habitat and uproots Appalachian communities.