Members of Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and the Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club are taking action against mountaintop removal coal mining through “Green Your Money”, a PNC Bank divestment campaign. On December 1, 2012 thirteen local participants with EQAT and the Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club took a sample of tap water contaminated by mountaintop removal coal mining from Eunice, West Virginia into PNC Bank’s Hockessin Branch to show bank personnel and customers.
PNC is one of the largest financers of companies that practice mountaintop removal coal mining in the nation. By closing our account with PNC Bank, the Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club prioritizes our environment, our communities, our public health and our future.
In Delaware, half of our electricity supply comes from coal. Mountaintop removal coal mining constitutes a major source of coal for electricity generation in the United States, electricity that we use every day. Mountaintop removal coal mining is a particularly destructive mining practice that removes the tops of entire mountains to access seams of coal. In the process, mountaintop removal coal mining displaces communities, destroys ecosystems, contaminates surface and groundwater, and has created a public health crisis in Appalachia. More than 450 mountains and summits in Appalachia have already been destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining, primarily in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
In this initiative to use a company’s environmental record in its decision of where to bank, the Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club joins other environmental organizations, including the Philadelphia-based Earth Quaker Action Team and the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club, that have also made the pledge to close their accounts with PNC Bank if its leadership fails to adopt a corporate policy that forbids investing in companies that conduct mountaintop removal coal mining.
In August, and again in September, we spread the word about the hazards of mountaintop removal coal mining on the University of Delaware’s Newark campus with the University of Delaware’s Students for the Environment (S4E) and the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT).
Because of PNC Bank's support of mountaintop removal coal mining, we closed our Chapter account. We are asking our members to close your accounts too!
How to green your money!
- Decide to close your PNC account and open one at a local bank or credit untion.
- Wait to close your account with others to generate more public attention.
- Tell PNC what you did and why.
- Tell your friends and associates.
- If you have time and energy, recruit others and help build the movement.
- Learn more at greenpnc.org
