Occupy Underground

Nine people were arrested today in sit-ins at four different Bank of America locations across Charlotte, North Carolina. The activists were part of Rainforest Action Network’s campaign to confront the bank’s leading role in coal financing, which impacts the quality of air in North Carolina and contributes to global climate change pollution.



Among those arrested was Patricia Moore, 75, of Charlotte, a Bank of America family shareholder and grandmother concerned about the impact coal pollution is having on her granddaughter who suffers from chronic asthma.

Seated with her arm locked into a 55-gallon barrel, Moore explained her participation in today’s protest: “Most of the members of my family live within the ring of five coal plants that surround our city. When Bank of America funds coal, it sponsors the coal pollution that’s hurting my family. My husband and I are Bank of America shareholders, but we are grandparents first, foremost and forever.”

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In the past two years, Bloomberg data indicates that Bank of America has invested $6.4 billion in the U.S. coal industry, surpassing any other American financial institution.
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