The tide may be rising, but it's also turning...

It's important to have milestones, checkpoints. Right now is such a juncture at which we can celebrate, take a mindful breath, look how far we've come, re-establish our footing, and dig in for the long road ahead. Fortunately, our pace is quickened, and our momentum is growing. Our goal is now within our site. We will see and end to mountaintop removal, and an end to coal.

There may never be a truly ethical corporation. They are programmed to do one thing, after-all, get money. But if the people organize, we can translate ethics into business terms. When it comes to the destruction of our mountains, and of our rivers, and the systematic genocide of an entire culture, business as usual ends now. Bank of America may be starting to get the picture.

Yesterday, Bank of America released its new coal policy, which appears to announce the bank's divestment from the most destructive form of coal mining, mountaintop removal. The policy states, in part:

Bank of America is particularly concerned about surface mining conducted through mountain top removal in locations such as central Appalachia. We therefore will phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal.

This is pretty huge, considering Bank of America is currently the single largest investor in coal extraction, giving billions of dollars to the largest coal companies performing mountaintop removal, including Massey, Arch and Peabody. Of course, we'll have to see how this plays out. After all, they don't call what they're doing in Tennessee by the term "mountaintop removal."

Either way, this is a momentous occasion. It sends yet another message to the coal companies, and to other investors. Time is running out for coal.

News of the divestment came less then two days after a federal judge revoked the air quaility permit for the Cliffside plant in North Carolina. Duke energy now has 70 days to update its technology or construction will be halted by the court. (Props to our friends and allies in Asheville!)

It's been a particularly momentous last few weeks for the energy justice movement. Recent events were almost foreshadowed earlier in November. The night before the National Day of Action against Coal and Coal Finance, some of us were gathered at the house in Boston, making signs and painting banners. Word came through the interwebs that a major victory had been won. A wave of elation ran through some of us, when we learned that a court had ruled that all new coal plants must use “Best Available Control Technology." Of course, none of those currently being built or proposed are up to par, so its back to the drawing board. More than just stalling all current projects, the ruling makes coal an even riskier investment. (We can certainly help it along, and make it even riskier.)

The Day of Action went well, across the country. I was happy to watch videos of a rather impressive march in Austin, Texas, with props, costumes, and a giant Bank of America card, with scissors. Back in Boston, a small of troupe ventured out for a day of culture-jamming, street theater, and quasi-educational tomfoolery. We decided to help the banks with their green image, by marketing their investments in "green coal"...