Coal Loses Wall Street Backing

Wall Street is pulling out of the coal business, as the New York Times notes in a front-page story today. Four of the Wall Street banks have announced that they won’t be involved in financing for new coal-burning power plants. Already overextended with bad bets on oil extraction, Wall Street can ill afford to risk extending its losses with coal plants that would surely fail or close before they earned enough to cover construction costs. Even already-operating coal mines are seen as too risky on Wall Street these days.