Dec 4 & 6: PNC and MTR

While PNC Bank is a regional leader in clean construction for their corporate buildings, they are not as virtuous in the realm of energy generation:  they are still helping to finance mountaintop removal coal mining.  Clearly, they need some more encouragement to get out of that business.  The Earth Quaker Action Team is helping to organize non-violent direct actions around the country to bring attention to the practice, in the community and within the bank itself.

The Pittsburgh Friends meeting (the local Quaker community) is leading one such event, a ceremonial divestment of their own funds from PNC Bank -- along with account closures by many individuals.  If you currently bank at PNC, consider being one of those individuals!  Even if you don't bank at PNC, you can support this action by coming to the event, holding a sign, and singing along.

The timing is perfect.  This is a practical follow-up to September’s People’s Climate March in NYC.  JP Morgan Chase and European banking giant UBS are already pulling out of funding mountaintop removal in Appalachia.  The focus is on PNC, a major funder.  The EQAT action in the headquarters city of PNC engaged 200 Friends from all over the country.

In that context, generating grassroots action in many states within the PNC footprint sends a very clear signal to PNC that this issue is not going away.  The people of Appalachia deserve a break from a century of their wealth being extracted while they are left in poverty and toxic dirt and the rest of us stuck with asthma and global warming.

11 a.m. on Saturday the 6th at the Squirrel Hill branch of PNC Bank (5810 Forbes Ave., 15217).  Training/info session and signmaking at the Friends Meeting House on Ellsworth Avenue in Oakland, from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday evening the 4th.  More info via the Sierra Club.