About 85 people protesting mountaintop removal coal mining and natural gas fracking gathered around the fountain on the north side of the Capitol on Friday morning. About 35 people carrying pro-coal signs stood nearby.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- About 85 people protesting mountaintop removal coal mining and natural gas fracking gathered around the fountain on the north side of the Capitol on Friday morning. About 35 people carrying pro-coal signs stood nearby.
Both groups then walked up the Capitol steps, circled under the rotunda and headed back downstairs to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's office.
Singing and listening to speeches, the two groups stayed in front of Tombin's office for more than half an hour. Several State Police troopers and Capitol police officers stood nearby.
Environmental protesters held signs including: "MTR Poisons Communities," "Diversify the Economy," "Sustainable Safe Jobs for West Virginia" and "No Jobs on a Dead Planet."
Their opponents displayed signs reading: "I Love Coal," "Coal Huggers," "We Support Coal" and "RAMPS Break Our Laws and Endangers Our Miners."
RAMPS is an acronym for Radical Action for Mountain People's Survival, one of the organizations that organized Friday's protest.
Dustin Steele, a RAMPS leader, spoke to supporters before they marched into the Capitol, pledging to continue opposing mountaintop removal operations and underground fracking that releases natural gas.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- About 85 people protesting mountaintop removal coal mining and natural gas fracking gathered around the fountain on the north side of the Capitol on Friday morning. About 35 people carrying pro-coal signs stood nearby.
Both groups then walked up the Capitol steps, circled under the rotunda and headed back downstairs to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's office.
Singing and listening to speeches, the two groups stayed in front of Tombin's office for more than half an hour. Several State Police troopers and Capitol police officers stood nearby.
Environmental protesters held signs including: "MTR Poisons Communities," "Diversify the Economy," "Sustainable Safe Jobs for West Virginia" and "No Jobs on a Dead Planet."
Their opponents displayed signs reading: "I Love Coal," "Coal Huggers," "We Support Coal" and "RAMPS Break Our Laws and Endangers Our Miners."
RAMPS is an acronym for Radical Action for Mountain People's Survival, one of the organizations that organized Friday's protest.
Dustin Steele, a RAMPS leader, spoke to supporters before they marched into the Capitol, pledging to continue opposing mountaintop removal operations and underground fracking that releases natural gas.
It was the first time people in both movements protested together, Steele said.
"We are here to advocate for a clean and health energy economy to replace the old boom-and-bust cycle that has kept West Virginia poor for generations," stated a leaflet the group distributed.
Since 2008, West Virginia's natural gas production has increased by 87 percent. But that increase has only created 1,000 new jobs, according to the group.
After nearly an hour and a half, the protest ended near the Capitol steps where it began.
Those against the environmental groups repeatedly shouted "Coal" and asked the speakers where they came from and where they earned their money. But there were no physical confrontations.
Steele, a 21-year-old Matewan native who now lives in Blair, on the Boone-Logan county line, was arrested last July during a protest against Patriot Coal's Hobet Mine in Lincoln County.
Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.
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