Celebrities, Scientists, Politicians Arrested in Coal Protest

NASA scientist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, and former West Virginia Congressman Ken Hechler were among 30 people arrested on June 23 at a protest against mountaintop removal mining in Sundial, WV. The group trespassed on the grounds of a Massey Energy coal plant. A counter-protest by coal miners indicated that tensions are running high over the issue, because stopping the process will cause miners to lose their jobs.

Mountaintop removal mining is controversial because of its detrimental environmental effects. As its name suggests, it involves removing the tops of hills in the Appalachians while searching for coal, then the rubble is often dumped as waste into local valleys and streams. The result is environmental devastation, plus the eventual climate effects of burning the mined coal. Furthermore, this process, for all its environmental destruction, only accounts for a small portion (around 5%) of the US's coal yield.

The trouble with banning this form of coal mining is that the mining offers jobs in a poor area of the country that also has very few college-educated individuals. It would therefore be difficult to stop the process outright. Indeed, counter-protesting miners outnumbered demonstrators at the event by a three-to-one ratio, and they were often able to drown out speeches by revving motorcycle engines and honking horns. The miners were clear that they valued their jobs in spite of the detrimental environmental effects, and it seems that unless they can be offered jobs in return for shutting down the mines, the mines will not be shut down.