Say Something Nice About Bank of America

OK, I will. This has nothing to do with the bruhaha over the sit-in by former workers at at shuttered factory in Chicago. Or the retaliation as the Illinois governor says the state will cease doing business with Bank of America. While the economic stories get nastier, this is a banking story with an environmental twist. Of course, it may mean the state of West Virginia will stop doing business with Bank of America.

Why? Bank of America says it will stop loaning money to firms that destroy entire mountains to extract the coal. Here's part of BOA's explanation:

"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." Here's the bank's formal coal policy statement.