More Defiant Action Against MTR

This in from Climate Ground Zero

Early this morning 81 year old Roland Micklem, a former United States Army Paratrooper and Christian advocate for the mountains led a blockade of Massey Energy’s Regional head quarters.

Roland, along with James McGuinness 53, Fred Williamson 75 and Joseph Hamsher 22, have courageously placed themselves in the middle of a road blocking all traffic seeking to enter Massey Energy regional headquarters in Boone County West Virginia.

The protesters are demanding that Massey Energy, a notorious mountaintop removal coal company, pay damages and health care costs for Appalachian citizens living within a one mile radius of Massey mountaintop removal sites, and that the Federal Government act immediately to end mountaintop removal. The men also demand that a full investigation is conducted into Massey Energy’s business, labor, and environmental practices.

“I am exercising a spiritual obligation as a steward of Creation. It was not God’s intent that these mountains be destroyed to enhance the wealth of a few individuals,” said Roland Micklem, 81. “This should not be solely a young person’s campaign. Now that they have provided the example and inspiration, we seniors need to make a statement with our own actions and share the risks that are part of this ongoing effort to stop the obliteration of West Virginia’s mountains.”

The blockade is taking place right after the Massey Energy sponsored “ Friends of America” rally, where Ted Nugent, Sean Hannity and Massey CEO Don Blankenship, painted climate change as a myth, blamed “environmental extremists” for regional job loss and called for a conservative extremist movement. Sean Hannity even took a shot at Van Jones, the former “green jobs handy man” within the Obama Administration. Jones, who before his resignation due to a vicious smear campaign, was actively working to diversify the Appalachian mono-economy, and bring alternative economic opportunity to the impoverished region.

These concerned citizens, the true “Friends of America” are dedicated to non-violent action that they hope will ultimately end mountaintop removal, and stop multi-national out of state corporations like Massey Energy from destroying the Appalachian economy, environment and culture.

For updates, please visit Climate Ground Zero