After months of pressure from direct-action groups, Bank of America has announced that it will “phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal.”

According to Rainforest Action Network, BofA “is currently involved with eight of the U.S.’s top mountaintop removal coal-mining operators, which collectively produce more than 250 million tons of coal each year. Mountaintop removal flattens mountain ranges and transforms healthy mountain woodlands into toxic sludge that has clogged more than 700 miles of rivers and streams.”

This is great news, and we want to offer our congratulations to all the folks who put hard work into this campaign! Let’s hope that other banks follow suit as the economy continues to crumble, until the corporations are forced to give up on the insane idea of blowing up mountains for coal.

But before anyone sounds the death knell for coal mining (or even mountaintop removal), take a careful look at BofA’s actual policy. The bank does not give a timeline for the phase out, and makes no commitment to stop financing other forms of strip mining, including for coal. Instead, they repeat the lie that coal mining “creates jobs” and can be done in an “environmentally friendly” fashion. The coal battle continues!

In related news, the Bush Administration has implemented a new rule making it easier to dump the non-coal portion of mountaintop removal-mined mountains into Appalachian streams. In better news, a federal court has withdrawn the air quality permit for the proposed Cliffside coal plant in western North Carolina! Duke Energy now has 70 days to update its technology to reduce mercury emissions, or risk losing its permit for the plant.