Mountain Justice urges PNC bank to stop funding mountaintop removal mining

Roughly 50 protesters paid a visit to the PNC branch at Main and Deweese streets in Lexington and released a banner inside attached to some helium balloons, which said "PNC + Your Money = Toxic Tap Water.â€ Activists also passed out literature about the issue to bank customers and employees and delivered a letter to the bank branch manager asking that PNC end its financing of mountaintop removal.

"Several banks have realized that they shouldn't be involved with companies that are causing the total annihilation of a culture by their use of MTR. It's unfortunate that PNC, like Massey, is putting profits over people and over God's creation,â€ said Mickey McCoy, a Martin County resident whose community was affected by a coal sludge flood in 2000.

Since January 2008, PNC has become the number one U.S. financier of mountaintop removal coal mining. The bank has provided more than $500 million in loans and bonds to six companies practicing mountaintop removal: Massey Energy, Patriot Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, International Coal Group, Arch Coal and Consol Energy (Source: Bloomberg). These six companies are collectively responsible for almost half of all mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.

"PNC needs to stop financing the destruction of our mountains, our water, and our homes," said KFTC member Miranda Brown from Winchester. "People in Lexington need to know where they're putting their money."

The action was organized by Mountain Justice, a pan-Appalachian organization that demands an abolition of MTR, steep slope strip mining and all other forms of surface mining for coal. For more information about Mountain Justice, check out their web site at http://mountainjustice.org

Check out the YouTube video here.

Check out the Lexington Herald Leader coverage at here.