Rally, arrests heighten push for clean energy future

KFTC members joined hundreds of other coalfields residents and some well-known public figures in West Virginia yesterday to protest the coal industry's indifference to the health and lives of people in their way.

They gathered near the Marsh Fork Elementary School to draw attention to the threat posed by Massey Energy's mining and coal processing operations, and to the larger issue of mountaintop removal.

The story of Marsh Fork Elementary is one of the most egregious examples of the threat coal poses to communities throughout Appalachia. Perched in the valley above this school is an enormous sludge pond, and a coal silo that literally casts it shadow on the school itself. Though the ground below the school and the impoundment is honeycombed with abandoned deep mines, Massey is blasting for new mine sites in the surrounding hills. If that impoundment were ever to fail, the children in the school would have about 3 minutes to escape to safety.

 Click to enlarge

Yesterday's action began near the school grounds, with a series of speakers telling their personal stories and calling for an end to mountaintop removal and for the development of a new, clean energy economy in Appalachia. Among the speakers were actress Daryl Hannah, NASA climate scientist James Hansen, and KFTC member Mickey McCoy.

Massey also turned out its miners and their family members in force.

According to a report in the Charleston Gazette, "Speeches at the rally were often difficult to hear, drowned out at times by a large crowd of miners and their families who gathered around the stage and frequently shouted at and tried to argue with the speakers. Other miners blew air horns, revved motorcycle engines and blasted car stereos."

Following the speeches, the crowd marched down the road a short distance to the bridge that crosses the Coal River to Massey’s adjacent mountaintop removal site. The bridge was completely blocked by Massey's group so 29 activists sat down on the road to block traffic in an act of peaceful civil disobedience and were quickly arrested by the West Virginia State Police. Hannah, Hansen, former West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler and KFTC member John Hennen were among those arrested. A coal miner’s wife was also jailed when she physically assaulted long-time activist Judy Bonds.

Hansen said he was there because coal is "where we need to start to solve the climate issue."  Others were upset that although the Obama administration has taken steps to lessen the most outrageous consequences of mountaintop removal, it has not taken steps to end the practice.

KFTC member Mickey McCoy and actress Daryl Hannah.

"Todays action at Marsh Fork showed that KFTC along with other organization such as OHVEC [Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition] and Mountain Justice can work together for a common cause," Mick McCoy said last night. " I appreciate the heightened activities that KFTC are taking to fight the injustices in Kentucky and Appalachia brought about by mountaintop removal."

Coverage

• Photos by photojournalist Antrim Caskey


• Video and news story in the Charleston Gazette


• Coal Tattoo blog by Ken Ward Jr.