Coal protests coming in the US, India

No coal protest in Austin TX 2007: Rainforest Action Network
On 27 Feb - 2 Mar 2009, the Energy Action and Powershift coalition of RAN, Greenpeace, the Ruckus Society and over 50 other organizations are taking action at the Capitol coal-fired power plant in Washington DC – a plant that literally powers Congress with dirty energy. With 10,000 expected to turn out, it will be the largest demo for the climate in US history.

In Sep 2008 Al Gore of the Climate Project called for "civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.” In November, Rainforest Action Network had a National Day of Action in 50 cities.

Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry say of the 2009 demo, "If you want to participate with us, you need to go through a short course of non-violence training. This will be, to the extent it depends on us, an entirely peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you. There will be young people, people from faith communities, people from the coal fields of Appalachia, and from the neighborhoods in Washington that get to breathe the smoke from the plant.
"Clean coal...is a lie. But it's a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point. We don't come to such a step lightly. We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated. It's time to make clear that we can't safely run this planet on coal at all."

See also previous coal postings, RAN's dirtymoney.org, and Gore's Repower America campaign for 100% clean electricity within 10 years; successful coal plant sabotage 28 Nov 08 in the UK, Whynewcoal campaign starting in India. Meanwhile, US moneymen happily announce a "coal boom" has started, with Peabody's Bear Run strip mine leading the destruction: 20 Mar 09.