Powershift Joins RAN on Banks Tour of Shame

By scott parkin

Citi bank: Coal is over!

Last week at Power Shift 2011, Rainforest Action Network teamed up with over a hundred youth to take the streets of Washington D.C. and speak a little truth to Wall Street’s power.

Banks like Citi and PNC remain some of the biggest funders of mountaintop removal coal mining and tar sand extraction and pipeline projects in North America.

The march weaved through D.C.’s Chinatown business district to branches of Citi (coal & tar sands funder) and PNC (mountaintop removal coal mining funder) near the DC Convention Center.

The march was so large, we took over two lanes of traffic.

PNC bank: Coal is over!

At Citi, we decorated their offices and ATMs with “global warming crime scene” tape and stickers about funding coal and tar sands. At PNC, we tried to deliver a petition but they got wind of our approach and closed their offices with a sign “Closed due to an emergency situation.

Yeah, PNC, there is an “emergency situation:” It’s called climate change and you’re bankrolling it.