Jun

23

Coal River—Mass Arrests Against Mountaintop Removal

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James Hansen getting arrested on June 23 at an anti-mountaintop-removal protest.
Antrim Caskey

Ken Hechler, the 94-year-old legendary West Virginia congressman and coal miner hero who has been battling mountaintop removal since 1971, was arrested in a non-violent protest with NASA’s celebrated climate scientist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune (the executive director of Rainforest Action Network), Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds, Vietnam veteran Bo Webb, and dozens of other coalfield residents after they crossed onto the property of leading mountaintop removal coal mining company, Massey Energy—purposely trespassing to protest the destruction of mountains immediately above the Coal River Valley community.

In the face of recent Obama administration actions to regulate and not abolish mountaintop removal, which has wiped out 500 mountains and destroyed historic communities, the action launched a yearlong national campaign to bring mountaintop removal to an end.

“I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen,” said Dr. James Hansen. “Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what is politically expedient. Mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be abolished.”

In an interview posted on Huffington Post last month, Hechler made a special appeal to President Barack Obama to stand by his word and end mountaintop removal. That post is here.

Here is today’s scene for the historic nonviolent direct action and march in Coal River Valley, in West Virginia: A 2.8 billion gallon toxic coal sludge impoundment behind the earthen Shumate Dam hovers just a couple of football fields above the Marsh Fork Elementary School, while massive mountaintop removal blasts boom daily within a few feet, and where hundreds of concerned parents, families and citizens from around the country have gathered to call to an end to mountaintop removal—for the sake of the children, the coalfield communities, and the Appalachian mountains.

Along with with NASA climatologist James Hansen, long-time environmental activist and actress Daryl Hannah, retired coal miner Chuck Nelson, and many other national environmental and political figures, the rally and march from Marsh Fork Elementary School to a Goals Coal Prep Plant and Massey Energy mountaintop removal site will be joined by two legendary West Virginia titans: 88-year-old activist Winnie Fox, and 94-year-old former US Representative Ken Hechler.

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