Earth First! blockades power plant

In a bold move, activists with Earth First! and Rising Tide North America (RTNA) blockaded an aging coal power plant in the southwestern corner of Virginia for several hours on July 10. The Clinch River power plant, owned by Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP), is notorious for the millions of pounds of pollutants it spews into the air each year as well as for its use of coal from strip mines which are devastating the region. The protesters used a variety of methods to block the three story high bridge which is the only access to the plant. One group stretched a rope across the bridge and dangled a platform over the edge, to which Patrick Garnett of Lexington, KY was secured. As the first blockade was set into place, another group waved an unsuspecting coal truck onto the bridge. Once the coal truck was in place the activists swarmed around it, letting the air out of the rear tires while two others secured their bodies to the truck with heavy duty locks and deployed a large banner reading "Earth First!." Within minutes, several semi-trucks laden with coal were piled up on the roads approaching the plant, as dozens of other protesters wearing dust masks flooded the site, bringing the crowd to about 75 people. The protesters carried signs reading "There are no jobs on a dead planet," and a large banner that said, "The beauty of the mountains runs deeper then a coal seam." Earth First! and RTNA erected the blockade to demand that AEP and the coal industry as a whole immediately shut down the Clinch River plant and all other aging power plants; stop all forms of strip mining, including mountain top removal; and that there be "a nationwide response to the reality of global climate change marked by a move away from fossil fuels, transition towards cleaner sources of energy and vigorous promotion of electricity conservation." Garnett, who helped hold down the blockade for over 5 hours from his hanging platform said he felt compelled to take direct action against the power plant. "The Clinch River facility is a symbol of all that is wrong with King Coal. Dirty air, ravaged landscapes and global climate disruption are the legacies of this corrupt, inefficient and destructive industry," he said. According to the Environmental Protection Agency's own data the Clinch River facility's emissions are responsible for 59 "premature deaths" in the area annually. In addition the plant emits 4.25 million pounds of carbon dioxide–a major contributor to global warming–into the earth's atmosphere each year. "I view this as an act of self defense" said Erin McKelvey a southwest Virginia native who took part in the blockade. "Not only are the people of southern Appalachia being poisoned and killed by AEP's greed; entire ecosystems, human cultures and the planet itself are dying as a result of devastating climate change caused by our nations fossil fuel use." The protesters also hoped to draw attention to the increasing devastation of the area's ecosystems from mountain top removal (MTR) coal mining. In this form of mining, entire tops of mountains are blasted off to get at thin seams of coal that, according to coal companies, are not accessible by other means of mining. In Wise County, VA, alone, 41,000 acres, are currently permitted for MTR and other forms of strip mines. According to the activist group Mountain Justice Summer, 800 square miles of southern Appalachian Mountains have been leveled by MTR mining, in addition to over 1,200 miles of streams being buried by mine tailings. For Ernest Wayne Cantrell, who grew up in the shadows of the mammoth coal plant, the decision to lock himself to the coal truck came from a very personal connection to the surrounding mountains. "I was born here in southwestern Virginia. The mountains here are part of my soul. They are sacred to me, and also to God. I have been forced to engage in civil disobedience because rich, greedy men have decided that the mountains of Appalachia are useful only to feed their insatiable greed. I will resist big coal's offensive against me, my culture and my planet. I fight back because I can't continue to watch the world's oldest mountains be leveled forever." Much to the protesters' surprise, the police made no arrests after the blockaders negotiated a deal in which everyone walked free in exchange for ending the blockade. Organizers with Earth First! and RTNA have vowed to keep up the pressure on the coal industry. "It is imperative that we stand up for ourselves and our land," said Mckelvey as she skirted past the small army of state and county police who had descended onto the protest site.