Actress Daryl Hannah, Climate Scientist James Hansen Among 30+ Arrested Protesting Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia

The protesters were charged with obstructing officers and impeding traffic after they sat down in the middle of the road outside of the facility run by Massey Energy, the biggest company conducting mountaintop mining in the region.

Those arrested in the protest were among several hundred people who gathered for an anti-mountaintop removal rally, held just down the road in a field adjacent to Marsh Fork Elementary School. Organizers picked the site because of the school"s proximity—less than 300 feet—to Massey’s operations. Protesters dropped their initial plan to enter the Massey site, and risk arrest for trespassing, when several hundred coal miners and relatives along with supporters of the coal industry blocked the entrance, according to the Charleston Gazette.

Tuesday’s protest was the latest in a growing civil disobedience campaign against mountaintop removal in Southern West Virginia. Environmental groups are promising a long summer of such actions, in part to try to push the Obama administration to ban mountaintop removal.

We go now to West Virginia where we are joined on the telephone by Bo Webb, a local community activist. He is the former President of the Board of Directors of Coal River Mining Watch. We are also joined by actress Daryl Hannah who was among those arrested at the protest.

Bo Webb, local community activist. He is the former president of the board of directors of Coal River Mining Watch.

Daryl Hannah, actress.

Related Links

• Coal River Mining Watch

Related Democracy Now! Stories

• “We All Live in the Coal Fields”: West Virginians Step Up Protests as EPA OKs New Mountaintop Removal (5/29/2009)