From VA to MD, people are protesting what has to be one of the biggest money making scams by energy corporations going on in the eastern US. Their agenda includes new power lines going thru WV, power lines going thru PA, power lines thru MD, Mountaintop removal in WV, VA, and Kentucky. New coal fired plants being built in VA.
The family of people who see thru this corporate farce is growing all up and down the Appalachians.
Here is a little story from VA…..
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DUFFIELD, Va. – Nearly two dozen supporters were still waiting late Monday for the release of 11 protesters who were arrested that morning at a power plant construction site outside St. Paul, Va.
By 10 p.m., they had been waiting for their release for about five hours.
Since the arrests, more charges were added to those announced at the protest site.
Lt. Todd Thompson, shift supervisor at Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Duffield, said all 11 were charged with trespassing, unlawful assembly and resisting arrest. Two, Hannah Morgan and Kathleen Ruth, were also each charged with 11 counts of inciting a riot. Their bond was set at $5,000 each. Bond for the others was set at $2,000 each.
By 6 a.m. Monday, 10 of the protesters had locked themselves in place to block entrances to the site, two to gates and eight with their arms locked inside steel drums that stretched across a construction entrance to the Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, which Dominion Virginia Power is building on the site.
The 11th person, who was not locked to anything, said she was there “to mediate for a safe and smooth process.”
“We’re here to promote a better future, in solidarity with the people of Appalachia who … are looking for sustainable jobs that are still going to be around when coal runs out,” said Kate Lally, 20, of Baltimore, Md., as she sat locked to a steel drum.
Although no one group organized the protest, participants came from across the country. Among them were members of the Rainforest Action Network, Blue Ridge Earth First, Mountain Justice, Asheville Rising Tide and Students for a Democratic Society, as well as local activists.
Two of the drums also held solar panels, which lit up a banner reading, “Renewable jobs to renew Appalachia.” The protesters’ T-shirts read, “Today’s destruction is not tomorrow’s prosperity.”
The plant opponents said they sought to stop construction of the plant, which began this summer after a long, controversial permitting process.
“This has been one of many tactics being used, only after going through all the process to no avail,” said Hannah Morgan, 20, of Appalachia, Va., as she sat locked to two of the drums early Monday.
Morgan said the plant will be one of the nation’s dirtiest, and that protesters had asked Dominion to stop construction “for our safety today, but for the safety of the community and the region at large.”
Other opponents are in the midst of legal challenges to the granting of air permits for the plant, which will burn wood and waste coal as well as run-of-mine coal.
“Dominion respects peaceful protest,” said Dan Genest, spokesman for Dominion. “However, we do not condone illegal acts such as protestors trespassing on our property, chaining themselves to our fences and blocking roads that could prevent our employees and contractors from coming to work.”
Genest said the company’s plans are to bring the plant online in 2012 regardless of any protests.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
Calhoun Underground 