The Rainforest Action Network is calling on financial institutions around the world to reject Dallas-based utility company TXU’s solicitations for US$11 billion in debt and equity to finance 11 new coal-fired power plants in Texas.

The banks include Canada’s Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Manulife, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Toronto Dominion.

RAN says that, if completed, the new plants will result in 78 million tons of new carbon dioxide emissions per year – more than double Canada’s emissions reduction commitments under Kyoto. It also claims that the outdated pulverized coal-fired technology being promoted by TXU is widely recognized by regulators and scientists as the highest greenhouse-gas-polluting source of electricity.

RAN has issued formal letters to 54 financial institutions, asking them to withhold financing for TXU’s project. The letters, from RAN’s executive director Michael Brune, called the TXU project a “risky transaction” and warned that in addition to the significant climate concerns, the expansion of the coal industry “is associated with destructive and unsafe methods of extraction, as well as the harmful local impacts of mercury and nitrogen oxide pollution.”

The letters also challenged banks to implement climate and energy policy protections that would ensure that they reduced the GHG intensity of their investments, and to support renewable energy sources such as wind and solar while shifting financial resources away from dangerous energy sources such as coal and nuclear.

“While governments and corporations around the world are confronting and trying to solve the global climate crisis, TXU is boldly proposing one of the most destructive ventures ever seen,” said Brune. “The world’s financial institutions can prevent this project from ever leaving the ground by simply declining to be a part of it. We’re calling on banks to say no to TXU’s dirty energy schemes, and to embrace the environmental values held by their customers, employees and shareholders.”