Coal Publications

Coal Risk Update 07 2013

Dump Now, Pay Later: Coal Ash Disposal Risks Facing U.S. Electric Power Producers

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.

Coal Risk Update - 03.2013

Arch Coal, the Blair Mountain Battlefield, and Bank Human Rights Commitments

Coal Risk Update - 02.2013

Selenium Risk at Alpha Natural Resources’s Mountaintop Removal Mines: Insight from the Patriot Coal Bankruptcy and Regulatory Monitoring Data

Bankrolling Climate Disruption: The Impacts of the Banking Sector’s Financed Emissions

The banking sector accelerates global climate change through its “financed emissions,” the greenhouse gas emissions induced by bank loans, investments, and financial services. A bank’s physical operations typically have a modest climate impact, but banks that finance coal-fired electric utilities or fossil fuel producers bear co-responsibility for the massive quantities of greenhouse gases emitted by these companies. Major banks therefore have financed emissions footprints that are much larger than their operational climate impacts and expose them to both reputational and financial risks.

Dirty Money: US Banks At the Bottom of the Class

A coal finance report card produced by Rainforest Action Network, the Sierra Club and BankTrack. We examine the policies and practices of the largest U.S. banks.

Bank of America: Risking Public Health and the Climate Briefing

As outrage at the country’s largest banks increases with the Occupy Movement and record bank customers move money to credit unions and local banks, RAN finds yet another reason customers should be wary of BoA. Our campaign briefing shines a light on the company as the country’s top financier of the coal industry, in turn, a leading contributor to climate change in the United States.

An Argument Against Coal Investment: 5 Case Studies

From the cradle to the grave, coal is a risky business. Each stage in the life cycle of coal– extraction, transportation and combustion–presents increasing health, environmental, reputational, legislative and financial risks.

Policy & Practice: 2011 Report Card on Banks & Mountaintop Removal

Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club’s report card, Policy and Practice, ranks ten of the world’s largest banks on their financing of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining projects and lending policies.

The Principle Matter: Banks, Climate & The Carbon Principles

RAN releases a new report about the implementation and impact of the banking sector’s “Carbon Principles.”
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