D.C. protest seeks end to mountaintop removal

Environmentalists protested today in Washington to urge the Obama administration to end mountaintop-removal coal mining. Frederic J. Frommer of The Associated Press estimated the crowd at several hundred "mostly youthful ralliers" who carried posters and heard folk music from the stage at Freedom Plaza, a few blocks from the White House. (Photo by Chad Berry, director of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center at Berea College, of Berea students attending protest)

Patrick Reis of Environment & Energy News estimates the crowd at 1,000 and reports that National Park Police arrested more than 100 people who broke away from the main group to sit in front of the White House. They included James Hansen of NASA, a leading global-warming theorist who has "called for civil disobedience to protest government inaction to address climate change" and argued that "the science on the practice unequivocally demonstrated it was poisoning water supplies," Reis reports. Hansen said, "Mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, can and should be abolished." (Read more; subscription required)

Some protesters carried posters or small white crosses with messages such as "water pollution" and "corporate greed," AP reports, noting that coal operators say mountaintop removal is the most efficient way to reach some reserves, supports tens of thousands of jobs and provides coal for electric power plants across much of the South and East. They had a pro-coal rally near the Capitol two weeks ago. (Read more)

UPDATE 9/28: "The United States Park Police initially estimated that more than 100 people were arrested for disobeying official orders and crossing a police line," during protests, James R. Carroll of the Courier-Journal reports. "A firm number of arrests was still being tallied Monday night." Sarah Blanton, 27, of Berea, a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, said the marchers "want to show President Obama we mean business." (Read more)