Mobilization for Climate Justice

Posts Tagged ‘coal’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2009
10:03 AM

CONTACT: PEER
Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
Email: info@peer.org

As part of a national day of action 13 activists locked down at EPA headquarters and were joined by 50 coalfield residents

Published October 30, 2009 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Activists with Mountain Justice, Rainforest Action Network and other groups planned protests atEnvironmental Protection Agency headquarters and across the country Friday to demand the end of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia.

An online map showed more than two dozen planned events from California to Maine, including demonstrations at a regional EPA office in Philadelphia and a New Jersey office of JPMorgan & Chase Co., a bank environmentalists say is the biggest financier of the destructive form of strip mining.

It was the third attempt at a national protest since June, and evidence the environmentalists believe the tide is turning in their favor under the Obama administration.

”The end of mountaintop removal is almost here,” declares the Rainforest Action Network on its Web site. ”Political and financial decision-makers in New York, Washington D.C. and across the country continue to hear our message.” Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.ilovemountains.org/

We confirmed reports that Massey Energy has begun blasting on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has stated that the mining operation on the mountain is “actively moving coal.” Workers were seen throughout this past week moving heavy equipment up to the mining zones, and blasting and plumes of smoke were seen and heard near the Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment on Friday.
The Brushy Fork impoundment is an enormous retention pond holding 8.2 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry waste. If the impoundment were to fail due to the blasting, hundreds of lives will be lost and thousands more will be in jeopardy from an enormous slurry flood.
A 2006 study confirmed that Coal River Mountain — which has the highest peaks ever slated for mining in the state — is an ideal location for developing utility-scale wind power. Local residents have rallied around this proposal as a symbol of hope, a promise of a new and cleaner energy future, but that hope may be destroyed unless quick and decisive action is taken right now.
Please call President Obama today at 202-456-1414 and implore him to use his agencies and influence with West Virginia politicians to stop the destruction of Coal River Mountain immediately.
Visit our Coal River Mountain action page for more details and talking points. We will also post status updates as we receive them.
Thanks for all you do for the mountains-and especially Coal River Mountain.
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

Grist article: Battle at Coal River Mountain explodes by Jeff Biggers

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
Climate Justice Chicago
How green is Chicago?

Huffington Post good article: Coalfield Uprising Arrests at Gov’s Office: Will Manchin Defend Coalfield Residents or Absentee Big Coal?

Coal River Valley Residents Declare State of Emergency, Meet with Governor Joe Manchin; Seven Sit-In at Governor’s Office

Video: 7 Arrested in Peaceful Sit-in at WV Gov’s Office Resisting the Destruction of Coal River Mountain

Climate Ground Zero For Immediate Release Contact: Dea Goblirsch or Garrett Robinson (304-513-4710) Email: news@climategroundzero.org

CHARLESTON, W.Va.- Coal River Valley residents and supporters associated with Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero delivered a letter to Governor’s Manchin’s office in the State Capitol building at 12:15 p.m. today. The statement from Coal River Valley residents calls on Manchin to use his executive powers to halt mountaintop removal mining operations on Coal River Mountain, one of the last intact mountains remaining in the Coal River Valley area.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ratcliffe Coal Action: ‘Massive Success’

October 18, 2009

Climate change activists have hailed this weekend’s direct action as a “massive success” after repeatedly breaching the fence and spending 24 hours outside Ratcliffe coal-fired power station.

Three activists are said to have recovered from injuries suffered at the hands of the police, while one more activist is believed to still be in hospital after collapsing yesterday afternoon. Footage was released last night of a protester-medic aiding a policeman taken ill at the protest (1).

Activists gathered in various points on Saturday morning, swooping on the power plant in separate groups to arrive at 1pm. Within five minutes they had already broken down one of the perimeter fences and several had entered the plant.

On Saturday night around 300 activists pitched tents in two camps outside the gates, despite attempt by police to intimidate campers by standing next to the campsite in full riot gear. The police have confirmed 58 arrests, but there are believed to be more arrestees yet to be booked in. Further action is expected to take place today.

Natasha Blair from the Camp for Climate Action said: ‘We’ve achieved what we came here to do: to show that coal has no future and there is a growing movement which is prepared to take action on climate change.”

This weekend, activists from around the world met in Copenhagen to finalist plans for similar actions during the UN climate talks taking place in December. The Camp for Climate Action has announced that they will be joining other activists in the ‘Push for Climate Justice’, which aims to take over the talks for a day.

Natasha Blair continued: “In the run up to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen this December, acts of civil disobedience to confront big business and governments that are causing catastrophic climate change are gaining support.”
Notes

1. Find the full video at: http://blip.tv/play/njSBqIoGAg

Northern Indymedia firsthand article
UK Indy media: great photos
Climate Camp live video coverage and more

commercial news
photos galoorie
Read the rest of this entry »

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Fifty-five Greenpeace volunteers have this afternoon scaled the walls of the Houses of Parliament and are now occupying the roof of the historic building. They are calling for a new style of politics in Britain, one capable of rising to meet the challenge of climate change.
Read the rest of this entry »

Senior March Day 3: Two Arrested for banner on Walker CAT; Police Intervene with March; Rising Tension

Contact: Andrew Munn or Dea Goblirsch 304-513-4710
Email: news@climategroundzero.org

BELLE, W.Va. – Two young people unfurled a banner which read, “Yes, Coal is Killing West Virginia’s Communities” off of the Walker CAT building in Belle, W.Va. at 12:55 this afternoon. The youth are affiliated with Climate Ground Zero and say they acted in autonomous solidarity with the Senior Citizens March to End Mountaintop Removal, are affiliated with Climate Ground Zero. The marchers passed the Walker CAT building on today’s route.

Gabe Schwartzman, 19, and David German, 18, were arrested by City of Belle Police and cited for trespassing on a structure or conveyance. They were taken to the Magistrate’s Court in Charleston, where they were released at 3:00 p.m on $100 personal recognizance. Steve Walker, CEO of Walker Machinery Company, went to the police station while Schwartzman and German were being cited for trespass.
Read the rest of this entry »

Australia Climate Camp
Climate Camp Day of Action Begins – Press Release

50 people peacefully blockade Peabody’s Metropolitan Colliery

Climate Camp shuts down Dendrobium coal mine – Sunday AM

Press Release October 11, 7am 2009

7.05am. Currently, four people from Climate Camp 2009 have scaled
and locked themselves onto the coal conveyor belt at the Dendrobium
coal mine near Helensburgh, NSW.

Spokesperson for the group Aimee Bull-McMahon said “We have shut
down the conveyor from this underground polluter as part of the Climate
Camp 09 three days of action. The Dendrobium coal mine, owned by
Illawarra Coal, has been disastrous for the surrounding water ways that
the local community relies on for drinking water.”

Read the rest of this entry »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Andrew Munn or Dea Goblirsch 304-513-4710
Email: news@climategroundzero.org

CHARLESTON, W.Va.- Fifteen participants between the ages of 50 and 83 set off on a Senior Citizen’s March to End Mountaintop Removal at 10 a.m. this morning. The march was preceded by a rally and press conference in front of the State Capitol building, and is sponsored by a coalition that includes Climate Ground Zero, Mountain Justice, Intergenerational Justice and Christians for the Mountains. It is part of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign against mountaintop removal in West Virginia.

Senior Citizen March

The seniors are walking five miles each day for five days, ending at Massey subsidiary Mammoth Coal on Monday, Oct. 12. In a statement issued by the US Mine Safety & Health Administration yesterday, Mammoth Coal was named as one of ten mining operators that need to improve performance or face tougher enforcement.

The mountaintop removal mine and processing plant, formerly operated by Cannelton Coal, was bought out by Massey in 2004. Massey cut the United Mine Workers of America contract and reopened the site, located east of Charleston on Route 60, as the non-union Mammoth Coal Company. The decision was met with a UMWA-organized picket and lawsuits.

“Mountaintop removal is closing in on our home place in Coal River, destroying the ridge up and down the river,” said Julian Martin, 73, a coal miner’s son and Vice President of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, “I see mountaintop removal as probably the world’s worst environmental disaster.” Martin’s grandfather fought in the largest organized labor uprising in United States history, the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Tran and David Adam of the the Guardian/UK report that direct action stopped the planned new Kingsnorth coal plant in England.

Environmental campaigners were celebrating tonight after controversial plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent were shelved, as the company behind the scheme postponed the project and blamed the recession.

E.ON, the energy group, tonight effectively threw in the towel on its plans to build a new coal-power station at Kingsnorth, blaming the recession.
In a heavy blow to the government’s plans to promote energy from coal, E.ON said lower demands for electricity due to the recession had pushed the need for the new plant in the UK to around 2016.

The company said, however, that it remained committed to the development of cleaner coal and carbon capture and storage “which we believe have a key role to play alongside renewables, gas and nuclear in tackling the global threat of climate change while ensuring affordability and security of energy supplies”.

While the company described the decision as a postponement, the announcement effectively scuppers the whole project, green groups said.

Kingsnorth has been shrouded in controversy ever since inception, with protests over several years including a high-profile Climate Camp protest.

full article here
and here

Shortly after G20 protesters were attacked by police at the University of Pittsburgh, on September 26 about 1,500 people took direct action to shut down one of Copenhagen’s coal fire power plants. The SHUT IT DOWN action plan had been openly announced several months earlier and Danish police had been gearing up for massive use of force to trial new anti-protest laws. Around 100 protesters managed to get inside the power plant. Although at that point the plant should have been shut down due to safety regulations, it was kept running.

Around 100 people have been arrested. One person so far has been charged. The action was widely and positively covered in Danish news. The protesters regard this act of mass civil disobience for climate justice an encouraging success and a positive trial run for the actions surrounding the COP 15 climate conference in December in Copenhagen (On Dec 16, RECLAIM POWER!).

Action pics:
http://modkraft.dk/spip.php?article11552

For google-translated movement and mainstream news about Shut-It-Down:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmodkraft.dk%2F

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F 2Fpolitiken.dk%2Findland%2Farticle797115.ece

For the original Danish versions go to:

http://modkraft.dk/

http://politiken.dk/indland/article797115.ece

South Australia Climate Camp 2009: A great success!

For immediate release 26 September 2009

Climate camp activists gathered in Port Augusta, South Australia have declared the state’s first climate camp a great success. On Friday Flinders Power announced that the coal train from Leigh Creek, the longest coal train in the world, would not run over the weekend.

On Saturday morning a crowd of 50 gathered outside the Port Augusta power stations to demand that the aging, inefficient stations be closed down and replaced with renewable energy. The power stations had been declared a “protected area” under the Protective Security Act 2007 for the period of the Climate Camp. Protesters then marched two kilometers through the protected area to a point where they were stopped by 70 police including many mounted police and a canine unit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Earth Island Institute has an interview with NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen. He denounces cap-and-trade, the Waxman-Markey bill, and calls for civil resistance in the face of the fraudulent inaction of the US government.

When I give a talk on this, I show that the three options for getting the actions that are obviously needed are through the democratic process, influencing the elections of the administration and Congress; secondly, the courts; and then thirdly, civil resistance.

full audio mp3

By Robert S. Eshelman

September 23, 2009

Editor’s Note: Follow Rob Eshelman’s dispatches from the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh at TheNation.com all week.

Tuesday afternoon, US District Court Judge Gary Lancaster rejected a request by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Center for Constitutional Rights for an injunction against the Pittsburgh Police. The lawyers alleged in the suit that local law enforcement has been systematically harassing and carrying out unconstitutional searches and seizures of members of two G-20 protest groups–the Seeds of Peace Collective and the Three Rivers Climate Convergence (3RCC). The judge refused to restrain the police and suggested that if police conduct warrants damages claims, then the ACLU should file suit. The ACLU says it will pursue such claims.

read the whole article at The Nation