A new report [PDF] from the Rainforest Action Network, BankTrack, and the Sierra Club looks at which of the biggest banks in the country provide the most support for the coal industry. If you count the number of transactions that a bank was involved in, Bank of America comes out the worst (44 transactions) with JP Morgan Chase not far behind (42 transactions). But in terms of hypocrisy, none of them are doing well:
These grades are based on the banks’ stated policies and “how well they uphold these policies based on investments, transactions of coal mining and coal burning utility companies.”
For example, Bank of America has said it’s going to “phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountaintop removal.” Since then, the report notes, the bank’s financed four of the largest mountaintop-removal projects in the country and underwritten 43 percent of mountaintop-removal mining in Appalachia.
