This letter was delivered to:
James Rohr
Chairman & CEO
PNC Financial Services Group
1 PNC Plaza, 249 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-2707
Dear James Rohr,
We’ve been in communication with PNC for a year now about PNC’s financial connections to mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR). We were pleased when PNC announced its new policy in October 2010 stating that “PNC will not provide funding to individual MTR projects, nor will PNC provide credit to coal producers whose primary extraction method is MTR.” This is a good start, but it isn’t enough.
This weekend marks the opening of the Philadelphia Flower Show, a treasured local, national and international event. PNC has been the main sponsor for the Flower Show for a number of years. The theme for this year’s Flower Show is Springtime in Paris.
We, the Earth Quaker Action Team, think it’s grossly hypocritical that PNC is supporting the Philadelphia Flower Show but is still willing to fund companies that engage in MTR, blowing the tops off mountains, killing the flowers and wildlife and harming the nearby communities in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. What about Springtime in Appalachia?!
We call on PNC to stop all funding of mountaintop removal coal mining. Specifically, we call on PNC to announce a complete sector exclusion for companies engaging in any MTR, effective immediately. If PNC does not announce their intention to cease funding for companies engaging in MTR, we will have no choice but to intervene using non-violent direct action to continue shining the light on this connection at the Flower Show.
Sincerely,
Ingrid Lakey
Earth Quaker Action Team
Director
