Columbus protest against Meigs County power plant gets nasty
By Mike Ludwig
July 10, 2008
A protest against the Ohio coal industry and a proposal to build a coal-burning power plant in Meigs County turned violent Monday after police dragged demonstrators from the lobby of American Municipal Power-Ohio (AMP-Ohio) headquarters at 200 Airport Drive near Columbus.
Eight protesters, including at least two from Athens, were arrested on charges of criminal trespassing and riot, according to the Columbus Division of Police.
Police sprayed protesters with mace (pepper spray) and had electronic stun guns drawn as they removed them from the building. Several protesters suffered minor injuries.
Columbus Police spokesperson Amanda Ford said that mace was used on five to six protesters, but Columbus police Lt. William Morrison, who was present at the demonstration, told the Columbus Dispatch that mace was used on about 20 people. Ford said that the electronic stun guns were not actively used, though Athens resident Erika Hedin said Tuesday she was shocked before being arrested by the police. Protester and eyewitness Gerilyn Hubbe corroborated Hedin’s claim.
The protest was organized by Earth First!, an international environmental movement “rooted in bio-centrism and direct action,” according to an Earth First! press release. Earth First! opposes AMP-Ohio’s plan to build a coal-burning power plant along the Ohio River in Meigs County because the group says it would contribute to global warming and cause further damage to the area, which already has a “high concentration of coal industries and related-health problems like asthma and cancer.”
American Electric Power also has proposed to build a coal-burning power plant in Meigs County, though the project has been slowed by regulatory and market hurdles. Both plants have been billed as “clean-coal” operations, though critics dispute whether, with existing technology, this is practical or possible.
Economic development officials in Meigs County strongly support the power plants as benefits to the local economy, which has taken substantial hits in recent years, especially after AEP closed its coal mines in Meigs and nearby Vinton counties.
About 60 Earth First! supporters gathered at the AMP-Ohio headquarters at 11:30 a.m. Monday. A dozen protesters held banners while two individuals used climbing gear to scale flagpoles outside the building. The rest of the protesters gathered in the building’s lobby and chanted slogans, condemning AMP-Ohio and the broader coal industry. Several protesters were bound to each other by chains running through homemade “lock boxes.”
“You’re lining your pockets with death!” one of the protesters shouted at AMP-Ohio employees who quietly watched the rally from the other side of the lobby.
More than a dozen police officers gathered outside the building during the demonstration. At around 12:20 p.m., police officers gave “one warning” to individuals and asked the crowd to leave AMP-Ohio property. They entered the building and began pushing and dragging out protesters who allegedly did not comply with the order to disperse.
Ford of the Columbus Police said police used non-lethal force because the protesters refused to move or leave the building.
Protester Maya Face alleged that police were overly aggressive and that their tactics were an act of “police brutality.”
“Erika (Hedin) was attacked for taking photos. She was not locked down; she was just standing there,” said Face, who was present in the lobby when police arrived. “People were trying to leave, and as they were leaving, they got pepper-sprayed.”
According to Earth First! spokesperson Logan Perkins, her organization’s confrontational tactics reflect their “no compromise” stance against the expansion of the coal industry in southeast Ohio and elsewhere. She said that just because AMP-Ohio has claimed its new plant would use new “clean coal” technology does not mean the plant wouldn’t be a major polluter.
Perkins said the protest was also intended to show support for residents of Meigs County who oppose additional industrial development in their area.
“I think that there are people there who have been fighting this locally because they will be the people affected,” Perkins said during the protest. “We’re here to call attention to their fight.”
In contrast, the Web site for the Meigs County Economic Development Office boasts the county’s attraction to private investment, including that of companies such as AMP-Ohio and AEP.
AMP-Ohio spokesperson Joline Thompson said Monday that Earth First! was occupying the lobby of the wrong power corporation. She said that AMP-Ohio, which is a nonprofit municipal power corporation, has invested in more “green energy” than any other power corporation in Ohio, and their portfolio includes a windmill farm in Bowling Green, Ohio, and five hydroelectric facilities.
“It’s impossible to meet all energy needs with green energy,” Thompson said.
According to Thompson, AMP-Ohio’s plant in Meigs County will qualify as a “clean-coal” facility because it will use “ammonium-scrubbing” technology to reduce harmful emissions. The byproduct of this process is ammonium sulfate, which AMP-Ohio plans on recycling by selling it as fertilizer. She said that AMP-Ohio is also interested in investing in carbon-dioxide “traps” that are currently being tested at coal-burning power plants in other parts of the country.
When asked why AMP-Ohio chose southeast Ohio, which is notorious for high pollution levels, as the spot to build a new power plant, Thompson said it was a strategic financial choice and that access to the Ohio River was a “critical element.”
AMP-OHIO’S PROPOSED power plant was not the only issue of local interest on the Earth First! agenda. Affiliates of the group held a small news conference outside of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) state headquarters in Columbus prior to the AMP-Ohio protest. There they announced that they had delivered a letter to top ODNR officials demanding that they withdraw a permit that the agency’s mining division granted in May to the Gatling Coal Company to operate a room-and-pillar coal-mining operation just outside of Racine in Meigs County.
According to an Earth First! press release, Gatling’s coal mine “crosses multiple streams, lies in two overlapping flood plains, and threatens the water and the climate of the people in Meigs Country and beyond.”
A group of local opponents recently filed an appeal for “temporary relief” with ODNR’s Reclamation Commission to temporarily stop the construction the mine while the project is reviewed further.
However, in announcing the permit award in a May 3 article, the Pomeroy Daily Sentinel quoted local officials praising the coal mine, and didn’t mention opponents of the project.
“I think they’ll be a very good neighbor and employer in the area and will provide a welcome boost to the economy,” Perry Varnadoe, economic development director for Meigs County, told the Daily Sentinel about the deep mine planned by Gatling Coal, with its promised 200 jobs.
And the article quotes Meigs County Commissioner Mick Davenport as stating, “The mine opening provides a lot of good jobs for the community, and in talking with Gatling, they’ve expressed they want to use local businesses and companies as much as possible, which will have an even greater effect on our economy.”
Earth First! traces its roots to the 1975 novel, “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” by the late Edward Abbey, which chronicled the efforts of a small gang of environmental radicals to sabotage mining, road building, dam building and other development projects in southeast Utah.
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