Several people from Roane and Gilmer
County joined the Climate Protest in Washington yesterday, in what had been projected to be the
"largest civil disobedience for the climate in history."
Environmental activists faced frigid temperatures and one of the worst snows of the winter.
Organizers of Capitol Climate Action surrounded the Capitol Power Plant in Washington,
which is visible from the Capitol where Congress meets.
Congress has approved legislation to convert the coal-fired plant to natural gas.
The plant has been fueled in part by coal mined by the West Virginia's controversial mountaintop
removal method, which gives extra impetus for mountaineers to get
involved, according to environmentalist Vivian Stockman.
Carol Ross of Glenville said, "Some ask why we're willing to risk arrest. We
love West Virginia and seeing it blown up is causing us great grief. If our
being arrested could stop this outrage, we would do it every day."
Her husband, Roger Besselievre, added, "When we look at the larger scale - the planet - change is past due."
"No more diddling around. No new coal plants
should be built. Existing ones should be phased out on a fast-track
timetable. The human and financial resources of technology should focus on developing clean energy. Conservation is essential."
Protest against use of coal in America's energy future
A recent University of Massachusetts study found investing in clean energy
projects like wind power and mass transit creates three to four times more
jobs than the same expenditure on the coal industry.
The wind power sector
has grown to employ more Americans than coal mining as demand for clean
energy has jumped over the past decade.
"We think that coal workers should get preference for those new jobs," said
Mary Wildfire of Spencer in Roane County, who often volunteers for the
Huntington-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, which organizes for an
end to mountaintop removal coal mining and for a just transition into a new
energy era.
Robin Wilson, also of Spencer said, "Our society faces a choice between
creating sustainable energy or facing economic, social, and environmental
collapse."
"People are growing in their awareness of the gravity of global
warming, but they are unaware of the amount of suffering caused by nations
fighting to control fossil fuel energy. The same money being spent on
weapons and training to kill could be used to free us from our addiction to
coal and oil," she said.
A letter of invitation to the protest at the Capitol signed by Dr.
Judy Bonds of
Coal River Mountain Watch, which is fighting to preserve communities in the
southern coalfields, said,
"It's way past time for civil disobedience to stop mountaintop removal and
other coal abuses and to move quickly toward clean, renewable energy
sources."
"For over a century, our Appalachian people and
communities have been crushed, flooded and poisoned as a result of the
country's dangerous and outdated reliance on coal," Bonds said.
For more information, see
www.capitolclimateaction.com
and
www.ohvec.org
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