Green Your Money Kickoff!

Website Has Gone Live:
GreenPNC.org

Green Your Money: Earth-Conscious Quakers Against Mountaintop Removal

By Eileen Flanagan
Link To Original

Before the end of chattel slavery in the United States, some people of faith refused to buy sugar produced by slaves. During apartheid many divested from companies working in South Africa. In that tradition of non-cooperation with injustice, the Earth Quaker Action Team is launching a new program called Green Your Money to encourage people of conscience to stop financing mountaintop removal coal mining, a devastating practice that the National Council of Churches describes as “dramatically damaging God’s good Creation and impacting the health, homes, and lives of our neighbors in Appalachia.”

At their Feb. 29 kick-off event at Friends Center in Philadelphia, EQAT will announce that Quakers have already pledged to remove at least $1.9 million from PNC Bank, one of the biggest financers of mountaintop removal. PNC claims to be a “green” bank with Quaker roots, part of the reason the group believes the bank is susceptible to consumer pressure. For two years EQAT has used nonviolent direct action to pressure PNC to stop financing companies that extract coal in a way that their website explains “has destroyed over 500 mountains and buried over 2,000 miles of stream, causing increased rates of cancer and birth defects for families across Appalachia.”

One of the speakers at the Feb. 29 kick off will be Chris Nicholson, grandson of John E. Carter, co-founder of “the Quaker Bank” in 1865. Nicholson plans to sell most of the bank shares he inherited, keeping a few so he can attend shareholder meetings. A Philadelphia Quaker congregation, Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting, will also announce plans to move their funds to a local bank, and the Green Your Money Program Director Walter Hjelt Sullivan says that more Quaker institutions are studying the issue and seriously considering action.

“Green Your Money strikes a chord in the hearts of many Quakers and other people of faith,” explains Sullivan. “We are called by Divine Love to heal a wounded world, to stand with the oppressed, and to speak out to the powerful. Acting together, we can start taking the profit out of financing climate change while helping to build the beloved community here on earth. When we stand in solidarity with the people of Appalachia, we follow God’s most basic commandments. We do not seek the collapse of PNC Bank, we seek a PNC Bank renewed — a PNC Bank ready to lead the financial services industry into a more just and sustainable future dedicated to the common good.”

The Green Your Money Program hopes to inspire as many PNC account holders and institutions as possible to sign the pledge, promising to move their money out of PNC Bank unless it commits to a sector exclusion of companies that practice mountaintop removal coal mining.
To build support for the campaign, longtime activist George Lakey will be leading a “Green Walk for Jobs and Justice,” which will start April 30 in Philadelphia and arrive at PNC national headquarters in Pittsburgh on May 16. The walkers will stop at PNC branches and Quaker meetings along the way, inviting all to join the campaign and the walk. The team plans outreach to environmental and student groups, as well as other faith communities.

The National Council of Churches has worked for more than 10 years to stop mountaintop removal, as have some of their member denominations. NCC offers discussion guides and other resources for congregations wishing to explore how they are called to respond to this particularly aggressive form of surface mining. “Our faith teaches us to care about our neighbors,” explains William Layton, Eco-Justice Fellow at the NCC. “Mountaintop removal harms the well being of some of those neighbors; recent studies have shown a correlation between mountaintop removal and a number of health problems, including birth defects. As people of faith, we must responsibly care for God’s creation and use the gifts our Creator has given us in a way that is just for all of God’s people. Mountaintop removal is neither a responsible nor a just use of those gifts.”

Announcing:

GREEN YOUR MONEY
www.GreenPNC.org

KICKOFF!
Wednesday, Feb. 29
11:30 am– 1 pm

Rufus Jones Room,
Friends Center
1515 Cherry Street.
215-588-5417 for info

(Action at PNCBank for those
who can stay until 2 pm)

sign up by facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/events/250130695067968/
or send us an email:  GreenPNC@gmail.com

What:

•  Getting PNC Bank out of the business of financing mountaintop removal coal mining.

•  Kicking off the Earth Quaker Action Team “Green Your Money” initiative.

•  Unveiling our new website: GreenPNC.org.

•  Announcing plans for our “Green Walk for Jobs and Justice.”

A walk across the state,
publicizing our Green Your Money initiative,

departing Philadelphia on April 30th isiting PNC Banks,

Quaker Meetings, congregations and organizations,

ending at PNC National Headquarters in Pittsburgh on May 16th!

 

Planned speakers include:

The grandson of the Quaker founder of Provident National Bank
(which merged with Pittsburgh National to form PNC Bank)

George Lakey, international human rights activist,
inspiration of the “Green Walk for Jobs and Justice”

Laura Jackson, Emmy award-winning documentary producer,
teacher, and founder of Nightingale Productions

Pallavi Podapati, Appalachian resident,
Penn Community Against Mountaintop Removal

For those who can stay until 2 pm:

A trip to PNC Bank to deliver our “Green Your Money” Pledge,
The premier showing of our latest EQAT video.

Come grow the movement, join the team,
and take the energy back to your home and community.

Major Moves from Students At Temple and Penn

“This fall, with support from the Earth Quaker Action Team, who started their own campaign against PNC, Penn and Temple engaged their communities in discussion and activism on the issue. Their work appeared to culminate this past Monday, when the Penn Community Against Mountaintop Removal and their counterpart at Temple individually met with PNC executives in hopes of convincing them to abandon their destructive investment.” ~ Grid Magazine Philadelphia

“PNC is aware that being green is marketable to our generation, and they advertise themselves as such,” Pallavi Podapati, Penn Community Against MTR member and College junior, said. “But for them to finance a form of coal extraction that blows up mountains, displaces communities and poisons the environment is not green.” ~ The Daily Pennsylvanian, UPenn

“We’re talking about stopping investment in something that is heightening health risks,” said Murphy. “That is endangering the lives of children in schools that have to attend schools underneath toxic sludge reservoirs … and also heightened risk of asthma, increased birth defects.” ~Newsworks.com, WHYY

“PNC representative Fred Solomon said bank officials had the chance to hear varying opinions in a meeting he called productive. “

“Soon there will be 35 other schools standing with us,” Trimmer said.”

The Earth Quaker Action Team is so honored and humbled to be working alongside the incredible students active at Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, UPenn, and Temple in our campaign to help PNC bank realize the promise of a clean energy future for Appalachia. In particular this month, the campaigns at Temple and Penn have taken off, resulting in visits from PNC leadership to the two campuses to discuss investment policy around mountaintop removal. Each pursuing the issue in their own way, Penn and Temple are making the crisis in Appalachia visible here at home, and breaking through into the press and the mainstream – and they have plans to expand.

Our student allies (all honorary Earth Quakers of course) are a powerful and energizing partner in this work, and they have been putting the bank on NOTICE – challenging their critical student recruitment and university relationships. As we move closer to the day when PNC Bank leaves the dying, corrupt coal industry behind, we are going to be walking toward that victory arm in arm with student leaders who share our passion and calling.

Click the links below for news coverage of the meetings:

The Daily Penn

Newsworks

Grid Philadelphia

We Raised Up Windmills In PNC; 5 Arrests Over Green Jobs

Support for those in jail is ongoing! Keep Earth Quakers Karen Leitner, Vint Deming, Carolyn McCoy, Lee Reinert, and Gail Newbold in your thoughts as we wait for their release!

More updates coming soon + pics + video!

PHILADELPHIA – Five members of the Earth Quaker Action Team, ranging in age from 20 to 78, were arrested today inside PNC Bank’s Regional Headquarters, at 1600 Market St., during a “sit-in” to call attention to the Bank’s $500 million dollar investments in mountaintop removal: a coal mining practice that has lead to vanishing jobs and thousands of Clean Water Act violations.

“PNC claims they invest in mountaintop removal because of the jobs it provides, but research shows that mountaintop removal provides far fewer long-term jobs than wind power,” said Amy Ward Brimmer of EQAT. “On top of the environmental impacts, mountaintop removal has caused a steady decrease in mining jobs since the practice began, trapping some of the poorest people in America on toxic land without hope of employment.”

Activists cited research from Downstream Strategies, whose case-study analysis of Raleigh County, W.V. demonstrated that wind development on Coal River Mountain would provide 28% more long-term jobs than a 6,000 acre mountaintop removal site in the same location, as well as over 50 times the annual tax revenue.  

Quakers, numbering 25 inside the bank, raised two 8′ tall windmills to highlight the opportunity costs of PNC’s policies, asking Regional President Bill Mills to come speak to the discrepancies between PNC’s stated “Green” values and their investment strategy, although the bank declined the invitation. In light of the Quaker community’s historic relationship with PNC Bank, 5 Earth Quakers pledged to remain beside the windmills until the President came to the lobby; instead, Earth Quakers Karen Leitner, Vint Deming, Carolyn McCoy, Lee Reinert, and Gail Newbold were escorted out peacefully and taken to the 21st and Hamilton police precinct.

“PNC has a choice to make about what future they want to invest in,” said Ingrid Lakey, Director of the Earth Quaker Action Team. “You can’t build windmills if you blow up the mountains. Instead of being a leading financier of mountaintop removal, PNC could be a leader in the clean energy economy. But it’s up to them.”

3 Brave Temple Students Arrested During Sit-In At Campus PNC

“They’re pretty much denying the students’ voice and our right to be here,” said Melanie Rafoss, an anthropology and political science major. “That’s why we’re out here today protesting and taking direct action, because they’re giving us no other choice.”

Yesterday,3 students from Temple University were arrested holding a nonviolent sit-in at their campus PNC Bank branch. That same day, the University Investment Committee was scheduled to meet and discuss Temple’s financial and ethical relationship to PNC Bank – but Temple students were denied the chance to speak or be present at the meeting.

PNC is paid to provide Temple’s on-campus banking services, and in fact PNC Bank’s Regional Manager Bill Mills sits on Temple’s Board of Trustees! Even though the students at Temple were able to gather over 500 signatures in support of their petition, the University administration furnished our student allies in ‘Temple Community Against Mountaintop Removal’ with a letter stating that “There is no opportunity for others who may be interested in [Temple and PNC’s relationship] or any other matter under discussion to participate in the Committee’s deliberations.” 

As the Temple 3 sat and spoke inside the bank, we sang and spoke outside, passing out copies of the Trustees response and the students’ demands: an unconditional public statement of opposition to PNC’s investments in mountaintop removal, a timeline for the severence of the relationship between the two institutions from the Investment Committee, and open and public hearings on the issue!  EQAT Temple Alumni Carolyn McCoy, Ingrid Lakey, and Lee Reinert spoke out about the issue alongside Temple Students, EQAT member Luke Byrnes mediated between students and local police officers, and Occupy Philadelphia provided legal support when the students were taken to the precinct.

As of this morning, Ethan Jury, Diane Isser and Daniel Teichman have been released safe and sound. Please keep them in your thoughts as they enjoy some well-earned rest!

Watch a video of the 3 Temple students reading their statement inside the bank at the beginning of the sit-in:

And click here to read the excellent Temple News article about the event:
http://temple-news.com/2011/11/30/protest-at-campus-pnc-branch-ends-in-three-student-arrests/

EQAT ‘die-in’ at PNC

Today, over 100 people joined members of the Earth Quaker Action Team for a “die in” on the streets of Philadelphia, to demonstrate the consequences of PNC’s investments in mountaintop removal coal mining.

Holding dozens of ‘Poison’ signs representing different parts of our community affected by mountaintop removal, the Mountains, Water, Democracy and Economy contingents of our march collapsed, on after another, in front of PNC branches on Walnut and Market streets as we spoke out about the consequences of these extraction practices. Our street theater stretched from sidewalk to sidewalk, dramatizing the cost of PNC’s policies as bank employees streamed outside to listen and take videos on their cellphones.

It was a powerful moment and a powerful symbol of what we are fighting for. It meant a lot to me that we were able to bring together mountaintop removal, fracking, and financial bailout opponents together for this event, and to identify PNC as a culprit in all three issues. It is becoming clear to people that PNC is our local connection to the financial and climate crisis, and it was inspiring to see such a passionate, multigenerational crowd taking part in nonviolent action together. Together we sang:

“From Appalachia to Pennsylvania, We Share the Same Fight

We Both Know that Water is a Human Right!”

Click here to see the article about us in today’s Metro.

Our coverage in the Metro today took some of the bolder quotes out of the facts and statistics we shared, but we were serious today about what was at stake, and we were able to speak powerfully to the fact that peoples’ health is already being affected.

EQAT November!

Click this link for our November Calendar of Events!