Is your bank supporting coal?

Extreme Investments: U.S. Banks and the Coal Industry

In this fourth annual Coal Report Card, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, and BankTrack evaluated the largest U.S. banks based on their financing of coal, which is the largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

In spite of the human and environmental costs of coal as well as the growing financial risks associated with investments in the coal industry, U.S. banks financed a combined $20.8 billion for the worst-of-the-worst companies in the coal industry in 2012. Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase had the most exposure to coal among U.S. banks in 2012, financing $3.03 billion, $2.75 billion, and $2.17 billion respectively in loan and underwriting transactions with companies that engage in mountaintop removal coal mining or electrical utilities that are expanding or extending the lives of their coal-fired power plant fleets.

This year’s report card highlights additional risks associated with companies that transport coal or are involved with coal export terminals. We also include case studies on the most risk coal investments banks are exposed to, including Patriot Coal, which declared bankruptcy in 2012 and began to phase out its MTR mining operations, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, which recently announced controversial plans to extend the life of a coal plant.

(To see the list, go here.)