This morning in Richmond, Virginia, twelve activists from Blue Ridge Earth First! were arrested while participating in a blockade of the Dominion property on Tredegar Street. The blockade was to protest the development of Dominion’s coal-fired power plant in Wise County, VA and the construction of new reactors at the Lake Anna nuclear facility. If you want to see what went down, here are photographs of the action.
Protesters called for conservation, efficiency and investment in renewable sources of energy rather than in coal and nuclear investments. All involved in the blockade and ground support were arrested and are being held by Richmond City Police. They are in need of contributions to release those being held. If you feel able to contribute funds to aid in bailing out these young activists, you can donate via PayPal (send donation to Drumplaya112@yahoo.com), or you can send checks to:
Early this morning activists with Blue Ridge Earth First! (BREF!) and Mountain Justice (MJ) blockaded the entrance to Dominion’s corporate headquarters on Tredegar St. in Downtown Richmond. They are protesting Dominion’s promotion of new coal and nuclear facilities as solutions to climate change. The blockade consists of four activists locked to a weighted barrel and a fifth suspended above the road.
While other states like Florida, Kansas and Texas have canceled plans for new coal plants, Dominion plans to begin construction this week on a new, 585 MW plant in Wise County, Virginia.
“Accelerating the rate of mountaintop removal mining to supply the citizens of Virginia with dirty energy is an irresponsible use of the most valuable resources of this Commonwealth. This is an issue of environmental destruction and a crime against public health. Dominion should further conservation and efficiency measures and develop solar, wind, and other renewable sources of power in order to do justice to the land and the people of Virginia.”
This blockade is the latest action from BREF! and MJ in the campaign against the new, coal plant in St. Paul, Va, and a direct response to last week’s decision from the Citizen’s Air Control Board to approve the final two permits required for Dominion to begin construction.
While the Air Board reduced the permitted emissions of Dominion’s proposed plant, its members declined to address pressing issues raised by over a hundred concerned Virginians at the June 24 hearing.
BREF! and Mountain Justice hold that when corporations, politicians, and regulatory agencies risk the health of communities for the sake of profit, measures beyond the accepted political avenues must be used to ensure environmental justice. Non-violent civil disobedience, like today’s, is an important part of citizen action to better our world.
Already, strip mining and mountaintop removal mining for coal have permanently razed over 25% of Wise County VA’s land mass. The practice has buried over 1,200 miles of headwater streams across Appalachia, leaving leveled mountains and poisoned communities. BREF! and MJ see the Dominion plant as a direct threat to the people and mountains of Appalachia.
Today’s action is also in protest of Dominion’s plans to expand their nuclear facilities at the North Anna plant in Louisa Co., VA. Both nuclear and “clean coal” are false solutions to the specter of global climate chaos. The impact of uranium mining, radioactive waste disposal, and nuclear plant operations on communities across the Southeast are unacceptable trade-offs for the continuation of business as usual energy policy. Renewable, decentralized energy, efficiency, and conservation are the real solutions to climate change that must be pursued by Dominion, Virginia, and the United States.
BREF! And MJS are dedicated to holding the blockade until Dominion agrees to build no new nuclear facilities, to halt construction of the Wise Co. plant, and cease burning MTR coal in existing plants.
Thanks to Hilary Lufkin for the majority of this content.
