No one was arrested, but not for lack of trying.
An estimated 2,500 people protested outside Washington, D.C.‘s Capitol Power Plant on Monday—the nation’s largest act of civil disobedience against coal power.
Anti-coal activists from all corners of the country braved the sub-freezing temperatures and six inches of snow the city received Sunday night. The uncharacteristically wintery conditions egged on global-warming skeptics, but the crowds marching around the plant weren’t deterred by the bad weather.
Nor were they deterred by last week’s good news that congressional leaders are planning to convert the Capitol Power Plant to natural gas by the end of the year—a move that seemed designed to preempt the protest.
They came bearing signs: “Topless mountains are obscene.” “Clean coal is like dry water.” “Renewable is doable.” They had chants: “Clean coal’s a giant lie. We won’t let our planet die.” “Coal companies stop your whining. We don’t want your dirty mining.” “Why are we standing out in the snow? ‘Cause dirty coal has got to go.”
Many protesters planned to get arrested, but even after several hours of occupying the plant’s northeast corner gate, they got no reaction from hundreds of police officers stationed nearby. Organizers declared the protest a success without arrests at around 4:30 p.m., as the sun started to set and temperatures began dropping even lower.
“I think any time you have 2,500 people willing to take action and risk going to jail to stop a coal plant, it’s a good thing,” Michael Brune of the Rainforest Action Network told Grist as the protest wrapped up. “And I think what’s quite clear is that we have more momentum than ever to start shutting down coal plants around the country.”
Morale was also boosted by the dismal showing for the “Celebrate Coal!” counter-protest organized by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Total turnout for the pro-coal rally was less than 20, including CEI interns carrying standard-issue signs with slogans like “Our economy runs on coal.” A duo of Irish filmmakers working on a documentary about “global warming hysteria” were also out, holding signs that declared Al Gore “not evil, just wrong.” (See photos from the protests.)
Monday’s action against the power plant was coordinated by the Rainforest Action Network, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and Greenpeace. Attendance also benefited from the more than 12,000 student activists in town for the Power Shift conference, some of whom turned out for the power-plant demonstration.
Climate movement luminaries were on hand, including climate scientist James Hansen, veteran activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., actress Daryl Hannah, writer Wendell Berry, former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, and 350.org founder and Grist board member Bill McKibben (who also blogged about Monday’s action). Hansen, McKibben, and Anderson were at the front of the action, signaling their intention to get arrested.
But it’s the rank-and-file protesters who gave the strongest sense of how the anti-coal movement is growing. Among them was Rory McIlmoil, campaign coordinator for Coal River Wind, which is fighting to get wind power going in his home state of West Virginia rather than letting more mountains be destroyed by coal mining. He was arrested on Feb. 3 at an action against coal company Massey Energy, which plans to blow up Coal River Mountain, and he has since been served a restraining order to keep him off all Massey property.
“There’s a lot of solidarity. It’s amazing to see the whole country come together,” said McIlmoil. “We need to stop them all. We need to stop all the coal that’s being pulled out of Appalachia and poisoning our water.”
Louise Benally also came to the rally from her own fight against coal back home, in the Black Mesa area of northern Arizona. Members of the Navajo nation there have been fighting coal mining for 35 years, concerned about both property rights and the health impacts of mining on native communities.
“We don’t need to kill Mother Earth for corporate greed,” said Benally. “Coal—keep it in the ground. We need to survive.”
Other activists included Beth Henry of Charlotte, N.C., who is organizing against the Cliffside Power Plant being constructed in Rutherford County, N.C. Likewise, John Blair of Evansville, Ind., who lives in the midst of the largest concentration of coal-fired power plants in the world, has been organizing with the group Valley Watch for 30 years. Abedin Jamal, an Afghani student studying linguistics at Southern Illinois University, was rallying despite an exam scheduled for the next day.
Protester Gretchen Goldman, a Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech studying environmental engineering, said, “I wanted to be able to tell my kids that I did something about it. If there’s no polar bears in the world, I want to say that I did something to try to stop it, I wasn’t just apathetic about the whole thing.”
Organizers hope protesters will take the momentum from Monday’s action back to their hometowns and local battles.
“We’re almost down one [coal-fired power plant]. We’ve got 634 to go,” said Brune of the Rainforest Action Network. “Even though the event today didn’t culminate in actual arrests, I think what we’re going to see is waves of direct action across the country against coal plants and the expansion of fossil-fuel infrastructure.”
Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success
Comments
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randino Posted 9:23 pm
02 Mar 2009
Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH
Randy Cunningham
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Erik Hoffner Posted 9:38 pm
02 Mar 2009
Erik
The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more
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amayakind Posted 10:16 pm
02 Mar 2009
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Pompey Road Posted 12:31 am
03 Mar 2009
The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.
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gormanme Posted 1:59 am
03 Mar 2009
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markalla Posted 3:33 am
03 Mar 2009
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/200 ...
I'm not sure where it ended up in the print edition.
Unfortunately, the article only mentions "hundreds" of protesters instead of "thousands" and takes a sceptical tone to the whole idea.
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Oemissions Posted 3:36 am
03 Mar 2009
They have some letters and phone calls heading their way.
I love the signs, and the fun.
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F James Handley Posted 3:39 am
03 Mar 2009
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sloopy Posted 4:37 am
03 Mar 2009
Considering how many other protests I have been to that did not get covered at all, I was really happy to see it in the Washington Post. And in this one, it definitely says thousands. Woo!
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RidgeDavis Posted 4:43 am
03 Mar 2009
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MtnButterfly Posted 5:38 am
03 Mar 2009
Its true, I'm not from West Virginia, I dont share a rich Appalachian history with those from Central Appalachia, and I dont have any coal miners in my family line. But I have been fortunate and blessed to become close to hundreds of residents and activists living in southern West Virginia and particularly around Coal River Mountain. They are some of the most kind, caring, beautiful and accepting people I've ever known, and I love them dearly.
I personally am from Virginia, have grown up all over the southeast, mostly in suburbia, but my heart and soul belong to the Coal River Valley and to Coal River Mountain. I know the mountain better than I've ever known a neighborhood or the woods in my backyard, and I know the local residents almost as well.
I dont know how many years it takes to become an official resident of West Virginia, but I'm not going anywhere. This is my home now. And I'm going to help protect it.
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Pompey Road Posted 6:39 am
03 Mar 2009
The worst thing that could have ever have happened to us was the discovery of coal in these mountains. It is destroying the people and these mountains, some say even the Earth. I have seen nothing but servitude, misery, death and destruction form a coal corporation.
You are one of us, when you come and saw the raw beauty of the mountains and the people you become initiated into the mystery of the place. When you took upon yourself the challenge of trying to save it you become adopted into the clan. We wish you well and hope you have great success in all your endeavors. I hope you are successful in saving the Coal River Mountain, Blair Mountain and all the mountains of West Virginia that are so steeped in our history.
The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.
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christophersj Posted 6:42 am
03 Mar 2009
Liberal MSNBC editorial shows, which I usually enjoy, and other blogs and such didnt cover either.
Maddow and Olberman wouldn't know an environmental story from a hole in the ground. They almost never cover that beat. Same for Crooks and Liars, Kos, ect.
Sorry.
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lgcarey Posted 8:11 am
03 Mar 2009
Good social implications observation, too: "For all the attention paid to it in the media, global warming remains an amorphous issue for many Americans, one with consequences that are far-off and unconnected to their daily lives. If that is ever going to change, warming advocates need to make climate change a matter of justice, appealing to Americans' sense of fairness -- just as social movements like the civil rights one once did."
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RuthA Posted 11:42 am
03 Mar 2009
for a few minutes on local news covering the DC Capitol Climate Action. Good brief coverage and then much too much time trying to give "equal time" to the opposition.
A friend led part of the prayer service and my heart went out to her and other friends who were part of the circle blessing the coming action. But the sense of a holy action continued throughout the afternoon. The temperature was cold but the action was so warm, as we were asked to "take care of each other" and of ourselves. There was help for those getting cold, hungry, thirsty or scared. We were not along. The sense of doing this together with reverence, commitment, and joy grew with each hour we rallied and walked.
And as we shouted to people opening their townhouse doors to wave at us "we are doing this for you!" The whole action was an act of caring, a sacred act protecting the lives of people living now and people who are yet to be born.
There were so many generations from the grandmothers with walkers to college students and teens and at least mother carrying an infant.
The sense of being together and caring for each other and the coming generations felt right.
Peace.
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suburban saunterer Posted 7:00 am
04 Mar 2009
This past weekend was extremely encouraging for me. What a peaceful protest, and a great way to introduce friends to the movement.
I am now wondering what the next step is. How can we bring the fight home to our own states? How can we support those in Coal River? Let's not let this be a one time deal.
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shellius Posted 7:06 am
05 Mar 2009
Lots of blogs covered it though, and I'm going to cover it in my podcast.
(Futurism Now)
However -- let's not get too confused about natural gas. It's not "good news" to switch to another fossil fuel that is finite and non-renewable. Pelosi should be leading the charge to install solar panels like Carter tried to do. Jimmy Carter was installing solar panels in 1979! And now natural gas is "good news"? How far we have lowered our expectations.... and at crisis time too. That's bad news. With the crisis we have reached, solar panels should be imperative. So should wind turbines, maybe even on the national mall.
Renewables would be good news. Coal is horrible, but natural gas emits CO2 too. 56% as much as coal.
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shellius Posted 7:10 am
05 Mar 2009
Arrests would have helped publicity a lot.
Maybe that's why no one was arrested.
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