Bank of America Responds to Asheville, North Carolina, Demonstration

Bank of America has issued a response to yesterday's demonstration protesting the Bank's investment policies regarding fossil fuel use and mining. Eloise Hale, a spokesperson for Bank of America, didn't directly address the protesters' charges, but said the Bank has a "strong environmental commitment." She also said they are working to "reduce greenhouse gas emissions within our energy and utility loan portfolio by 7% by 2008" and indicated they were on target to achieve that goal.

The Bank of America's Patton Avenue branch in downtown Asheville was the site of a protest Monday by more than 50 people taking a stand against the fossil fuel industry. Protesters, some of whom were dressed as canaries and polar bears, converged on the site to voice their opposition to the Bank of America's investment policies. Five protesters chained themselves to bank fixtures. They were arrested and charged with trespassing and resisting officers. The protest resulted in the bank being shut down for two hours.

Reagan Richmond, a spokesperson for the protesters, said, "A lot of the strip mining and mountaintop removal mining sites in southern Appalachia are run by Massey Energy. Bank of America is heavily invested in that company." Richmond went on to make the connection between the bank's investment policies and the devastation that results from this type of mining. Both the community and the environment are heavily impacted by the process, said Richmond.

The protesters had first gathered in neighboring Transylvania County earlier in the week for a meeting entitled the "Southeast Convergence for Climate Action". Shortly thereafter, police became aware that a protest was planned for the coal-fired Progress Energy site at Lake Julian. Police proceeded to set up a road block at the site, checking vehicles that entered and left the site. Officers from both Buncombe and Henderson counties participated in the checkpoint, along with N.C. Highway Patrol troopers. No organized protest resulted at the Lake Julian site.

The protesters did, however, organize at the Bank of America site, where they were met by more than a dozen police officers in riot gear along with two police dogs. Not only the bank itself, but parts of busy Patton Avenue, one of Asheville's main thoroughfares, were closed from Coxe Avenue to Church Street for about two hours. After police arrived and a few arrests were made, the demonstrators began to disperse. They drifted over to Pritchard Park, but no further organized demonstrations ensued.