Sample resolution for faith communities and non-profit organizations
1) Short Version
[Name of faith community or organization] hears the voices of the majority of the Appalachian people calling for an end to the environmentally devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.
We unite with the recommendation of the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and empower our Treasurer, in consultation with the Chair of our Finance Committee, to identify an appropriate local bank or credit union into which we will move our organization’s bank accounts as soon as the process can be reasonably accomplished.
We ask the Board Secretary to write a letter, adapted from the sample provided by EQAT, to be sent to James E. Rohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PNC Financial Services Group, telling him of our action and encouraging PNC to enact a full sector exclusion on investments in any company that practices mountaintop removal coal mining.
We encourage individual members of our Board and our larger community who currently bank with PNC to consider taking similar actions.
2) Longer Version
[Name of faith community or organization] unites with the majority of the people of Appalachia, numerous community organizations in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), and many individuals, faith communities and organizations in calling for an end to the environmentally devastating surface mining practice commonly called mountaintop removal coal mining.
Mountaintop removal coal mining has already destroyed over 500 of the most ancient mountains on earth, threatening one of the richest and most diverse eco-systems in North America. Excess refuse from the blasting, called overburden, has buried over 2000 miles of river and stream, contaminating the headwaters that feed the entire southeastern United States.
Recent studies show that communities near mountaintop removal sites suffer increased rates of heart, lung, and kidney disease as well as multiple forms of cancer and birth defects. Mountaintop removal requires fewer workers to extract more coal, leaving less economic wealth in the community that suffers from the direct impacts of the practice.
We understand that mountaintop removal coal mining is not consistent with our core values and our emerging understanding of the requirement to live in harmony with creation.
We unite with the recommendation of the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and empower our Treasurer, in consultation with the Chair of our Finance Committee, to identify an appropriate local bank or credit union into which we will move our organization’s bank accounts as soon as the process can be reasonably accomplished.
We ask the Board Secretary to write a letter, adapted from the sample provided by EQAT, to be sent to James E. Rohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PNC Financial Services Group, telling him of our action and encouraging PNC to enact a full sector exclusion on investments in any company that practices mountaintop removal coal mining.
We encourage individual members of our Board and our larger community who currently bank with PNC to consider taking similar actions.
