Environmental Leader

Bankers are discussing the development of lending guidelines – similar to the carbon principles issued by J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley that make it tougher for investor-owned utilities to get financing for coal-fired power plants – for municipal utilities, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The principles do not preclude bank financing for building traditional coal-burning power plants,but they do set up a more rigorous evaluation process.

Municipal utilities produce about a third of the nation’s electricity and also backs many coal proposals that are still moving forward, according to WSJ. The municipal exemption “is a huge hole,” said Dale Bryk, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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