If you thought bankers were assholes, you were wrong!
Banksters are far, far worse.
From Reuters:

Major global banks are exacerbating the fight against global warming by supplying power utilities and mining firms with ample funds to build coal-fired plants, according to a report released by non-governmental groups at the climate talks in Durban.
…
Among the top 20 banks listed in the report are institutions from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, China, Italy and Japan.
JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and Bank of America are the top three banks on the list.

(Illustration found here).

Although the report urged banks to shift portfolios from coal-fired plants to renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, the chances, of course, of this happening is near-laughable if the whole scheme doesn’t first make you cry out your heart.
Tristen Taylor from the environmental group Earthlife: “Between 2005 and 2010, coal financing almost doubled. If we don’t take banks to task now, coal financing will continue to grow.”
What does that mean, ‘take banks to task?’
Ha…Ha…Ha…Ha.

And just to keep this right, the World Energy Outlook 2011 report warned there’s still time to clean up the earth’s toxic shit, but that precious window of opportunity is really, really small: “Delaying action is a false economy: for every $1 of investment in cleaner technology that is avoided in the power sector before 2020, an additional $4.30 would need to be spent after 2020 to compensate for the increased emissions.”
A window that closing fast — but money in hand now is way-better.

From the US EPA:

When coal is burned, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury compounds are released.
For that reason, coal-fired boilers are required to have control devices to reduce the amount of emissions that are released.
The average emission rates in the United States from coal-fired generation are: 2,249 lbs/MWh of carbon dioxide, 13 lbs/MWh of sulfur dioxide, and 6 lbs/MWh of nitrogen oxides.
Mining, cleaning, and transporting coal to the power plant generate additional emissions.
For example, methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is trapped in the coal, is often vented during these processes to increase safety.

And the problem is that coal/oil plants are in reality inefficient.
In fact, coal is actually harming the US economy, according to an American Economic Review report from last September, titled, “Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy.”
Via Think Progress:

Solid waste combustion, sewage treatment, stone quarrying, marinas, and oil and coal-fired power plants have air pollution damages larger than their value added. . .
Coal plants are responsible for more than one-fourth of GED [gross external damages] from the entire US economy.
The damages attributed to this industry are larger than the combined GED due to the three next most polluting industries: crop production, $15 billion/year, livestock production, $15 billion/year, and construction of roadways and bridges, $13 billion/ year.
“Five industries stand out as large air polluters,” the authors write, “coal-fired power plants, crop production, truck transportation, livestock production, and highway-street-bridge construction.”
…
“The findings show that, contrary to current political mythology, coal is underregulated,” Legal Planet’s Dan Farber comments.
“On average, the harm produced by burning the coal is over twice as high as the market price of the electricity.
In other words, some of the electricity production would flunk a cost-benefit analysis.
This means that we’re either not using enough pollution controls or we’re just overusing coal as a fuel.”

In the nasty words of giant asshole Don Blankenship, head of Massey Energy: But I also know — I also know Washington and state politicians have no idea how to improve miner safety. The very idea that they care more about coal miner safety than we do is as silly as global warming.

And also remember that banksters are so, so full of lying shit, using honeyed words to smoke up the room: “Interestingly, almost all of the top 20 climate-killer banks in our ranking have made far-reaching statements regarding their commitment to combatting climate change,” said Yann Louvel of BankTrack, an NGO that monitors the activities of banks.

They’re banksters, that’s what they do, same as Terminators.