Breaking: Climbers Up on 20-Story Piece of Mining Equipment Protesting Mountaintop Removal

By scott parkin

COAL RIVER VALLEY, W. VA.—Moments ago, four concerned citizens entered onto Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal Dragline like the one that activists are on now!mine site near Twilight WV and have begun to scale a 150-foot dragline machine to drop a banner that says, ‘stop mountaintop removal mining.’ The climbers plan to stay on the enormous dragline, a massive piece of equipment that removes house-sized chunks of blasted rock and earth to expose coal, until police arrest them. Equipped with satellites phones and a web camera, the climbers will be available for interviews.

big-john-dragline

This is the first time a dragline has been scaled on a mountaintop removal site, and marks the latest in a string of increasingly dramatic protests in West Virginia by residents and allies from across the country. This act of protest against mountaintop removal comes just days after the Obama Administration announced a plan to reform, but not abolish, the aggressive strip mining practice.

more updates and photo/video coming later today. stay posted at www.mountainaction.org and on www.twitter.com/mtnaction