Peaceful Protesters Lock their Bodies to Dominion Power Plant

15 Sep­tem­ber 2008
Pro­test­ers From Across the Coun­try Join Wise Coun­ty VA Res­i­dents to Oppose Pow­er Plant’s Impact on Envi­ron­ment and Health, and to Demand a Clean Ener­gy Future

At 6:00am this morn­ing around 50 peace­ful pro­test­ers entered the con­struc­tion site of Domin­ion Vir­gini­a’s Wise Coun­ty coal-fired pow­er plant. Almost twen­ty pro­test­ers locked their bod­ies to eight large steel drums, two of which have oper­a­tional solar pan­els affixed to the top that illu­mi­nat­ed a ban­ner read­ing “renew­able jobs to renew Appalachia.” In addi­tion to those locked to the con­struc­tion site, over 25 pro­test­ers from across the coun­try con­vened in front of the plant singing and hold­ing a 10’x30’ ban­ner, which said “we demand a clean ener­gy future.”

In this event—the first protest at Domin­ion’s $1.8 bil­lion new coal-fired pow­er plant—local Wise Coun­ty res­i­dents have joined hands with those fight­ing moun­tain­top removal coal and cli­mate change from Ten­nessee to Cal­i­for­nia. Those young and old, from cities and from rur­al com­mu­ni­ties have come togeth­er because the con­struc­tion of this 585-megawatt pow­er plant not only pos­es a mas­sive risk to the health of Appalachi­ans, but it also stands in stark oppo­si­tion to the nation­al move to a clean ener­gy econ­o­my.

“Coal is in our blood but we’re real­iz­ing it’s also in our lungs and in our drink­ing water,” said Han­nah Mor­gan, Wise Coun­ty landown­er and one of those locked to the con­struc­tion site. “We are here because now is the time to take greater action as indi­vid­u­als, a com­mu­ni­ty, and a coun­try to cre­ate a sus­tain­able future and stop the destruc­tion of our home­place.”

“I’m here from Coal Riv­er, WV to sup­port my fel­low Appalachi­ans in our shared strug­gle to end coal indus­try abus­es,” said Bo Webb, res­i­dent of Coal Riv­er, WV and mem­ber of Coal Riv­er Moun­tain Watch. “We are not going to con­tin­ue to stand idly by and watch our chil­dren be robbed of their right to clean air and clean water. This is no longer an Appalachi­an prob­lem, it’s an Amer­i­can prob­lem.”

With very few jobs going to local res­i­dents for con­struc­tion or long-term plant oper­a­tion and with­out any means to cap­ture its car­bon diox­ide pol­lu­tion, the Domin­ion plant rep­re­sents a remark­ably bad deal for Vir­ginia. “With all the bil­lions of dol­lars that have rolled out of Appalachia in the last 5 years, it should look like Dubai but instead it looks like Guatemala,” said Jane Bran­ham, Wise Coun­ty res­i­dent and nurse. “My dad was a coal min­er. As he says, ‘it’s not the same as it used to be—there’s no prof­it in coal for the peo­ple here any­more there’s only dev­as­ta­tion.’ ”

This event comes on the heels of Domin­ion’s ground­break­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the plant on August 14 and con­tin­ues almost two years of oppo­si­tion to the project. Near­ly 45,000 Vir­gini­ans have signed a peti­tion against the con­struc­tion of the plant, three law­suits were recent­ly filed chal­leng­ing the state’s approval of the plant as its per­mits fail to ade­quate­ly con­trol emis­sions of haz­ardous tox­ins, such as mer­cury, which can cause severe neu­ro­log­i­cal deficits in devel­op­ing fetus­es and young chil­dren.

“Embrac­ing clean ener­gy is not a sac­ri­fice, it is an oppor­tu­ni­ty,” said Rebec­ca Tar­bot­ton of Rain­for­est Action Net­work, a Cal­i­for­nia group that is pres­sur­ing Bank of Amer­i­ca and Citi, lead­ing financiers of Domin­ion, to stop fund­ing coal plants and to start invest­ing in clean ener­gy. “This Domin­ion protest is part of a rapid­ly grow­ing move­ment of peo­ple across the coun­try who are will­ing to put their bod­ies on the line to ensure a clean ener­gy future.”

Oppo­nents to the plant believe Vir­ginia should be lead­ing the coun­try in renew­able ener­gy; Vir­gini­a’s skilled labor force could be at the fore­front of the bur­geon­ing green jobs move­ment. Leav­ing Appalachi­a’s moun­tains intact could sup­port a 2,000 megawatt wind farm, almost four times the amount of ener­gy gen­er­at­ed by this plant.

The plant, if con­struct­ed, will process large­ly moun­tain top removal coal, cre­at­ing an even big­ger incen­tive for the destruc­tive prac­tice that dec­i­mates his­toric moun­tains and con­t­a­m­i­nates drink­ing water. Wise Coun­ty has already had 25% of its his­toric moun­tain ranges destroyed for­ev­er to moun­tain­top removal min­ing.

/For more infor­ma­tion or for pho­tos and b‑roll, please con­tact Nell Green­berg, 276–337-3198./

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