Yesterday, thousands of protesters converged on Washington D.C. in an act of civil disobedience against coal power. The crowd consisted of about 2,500 people who marched, held signs and spoke out against coal outside the Capitol Power Plant’s northeast corner gate. Despite planning for it (and not for lack of trying), no one was arrested.
Grist’s Kate Sheppard reported from the scene (via The Huffington Post):
“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.”
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 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.
The protest, which was organized by the Rainforest Action Network, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Greenpeace, got a big boost from some of the 12,000 students who had also convened in Washington D.C. for the PowerShift 2009 conference.
Unsurprisingly, the turnout for the ‘Celebrate Coal!’ counter-protest was dismal, with fewer than 20 people showing up. Those few who did decide to take part held signs that said predictable things like ‘Our Economy Runs on Coal’ and disparaged Al Gore. What a joke, in comparison to the huge crowd that marched against the environmental and health injustices of coal power.
Thanks to everyone who braved the extremely cold temperatures and 6 inches of snow to make sure our leaders in Washington get the message that we’re not going to accept coal power any more. Clean energy FTW!
Link [Grist] + [The Huffington Post]
