Extreme Investments: 2013 Coal Finance Report Card

Today, RAN, Sierra Club, and BankTrack launched our 2013 Coal Finance Report Card. This year’s report, entitled “Extreme Investments: U.S. Banks and the Coal Industry” evaluates the largest U.S. banks in terms of their financing of companies engaged in coal extraction, transport, and combustion. As our title indicates, coal has become an extreme investment. Long [...]

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EPA Announces Powerful Air Pollution Safeguards: You Spoke and Lisa Jackson Listened

As the holidays draw near I’m raising a glass to all of you RAN activists, because—along with hundreds of thousands of clean air advocate allies—you stood up and asked the Environmental Protection Agency to protect our environment and our bodies from toxic pollutants. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the first-ever Mercury and Air Toxics Standards [...]

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Another European Bank Voices Risks of Financing Coal Plants

 RAN is challenging the largest U.S. banks to address their financing of coal power and we’re concerned that they are falling behind their European competitors. Last week, French banking giant BNP Paribas released its new corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy on coal power. (Those of you who enjoy reading bank statements can check out the [...]

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Do EPA Staff Get Threatened With Tuna Heads In Their Beds?

Last night’s edition of John Stewart’s The Daily Show featured EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson explaining why we need to clean up coal-fired power plants. Her reason is pretty compelling (you can watch below): “Mercury’s a neuro-toxin, it destroys our children’s brains, oftentimes before they’re born. These standards are estimated to prevent 17,000 premature deaths and [...]

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Houston RAN and Southern Energy Network Stage Die-In at Dynegy AGM

Environmental activists from six states -Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, Texas, Iowa, and Illinois – converged today to urge the Houston-based Dynegy corporation to halt construction on its six proposed coal plants. Outside the meeting 100 activists rallied to speak truth to Dynegy’s power. 40 activists from Georgia, Texas and Alabama staged a “die-in” inside the Westin [...]

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Mountain Justice Takes on King Coal in Columbus

How often do you get to witness a band of activists deploy a direct action and successfully pressure the CEO of a corporation into agreeing to their demands – before the police even arrive on the scene? On Friday afternoon, student activists with Ohio Student Environmental Coalition and members of Mountain Justice occupied the lobby [...]

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Ohio students converge, plan and say NO! to coal

Over the weekend, 70+ students from 9 colleges and universities in Ohio gathered in Columbus at Ohio State University to develop a network of student activists, coordinate cross-campus campaign activities and participate in an action to stop development of new coal-fired power plants in Ohio. It was incredibly inspiring to watch these students come together [...]

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Wall Street announces “Carbon Principles” – but what do they mean?

So, big news on Wall Street today regarding coal and our climate. Three of the largest investment banks (Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase) announced the formation of the “Carbon Principles” – a set of guidelines the banks will follow when lending money to carbon-intensive projects, such as coal-fired power plants. While the banks [...]

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Another coal plant up in smoke….

A couple of weeks ago the Sierra Club reported that the No Coal movement has collectively stopped or held up 60 coal-fired power plants due to environmental concerns.  Today there are reports of  yet another grassroots victory! Voters in Wiscasset, Maine, on November 6, 2007 defeated a ballot initiative that would have allowed a 700 [...]

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