PNC to Stop Financing Mountaintop Mining Projects

PNC Bank says it will stop funding, credit for companies using mountaintop mining method

The Associated Press

By DYLAN LOVAN Associated Press

 PNC Bank says it will stop financing projects that extract coal using a controversial form of surface mining known as mountaintop removal.
PNC says in a corporate responsibility statement updated late last month that it will no longer fund the projects or provide credit to coal producers that primarily use mountaintop removal to extract coal.
About 50 environmental activists gathered at a Lexington PNC branch over the summer to protest the bank's alleged funding of surface mining projects.

PNC spokesman Fred Solomon declined Monday to comment on the bank's investments. He says the corporate statement "speaks for itself."
Other large commercial lenders, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, have announced in recent years that they would limit their relationships with companies that use mountaintop removal.
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