13 arrested during protest over Va. coal plant

A week after leading climate scientist James Hansen called for radical steps to prevent environmental chaos caused by greenhouse gas pollution, 13 people were arrested today during a blockade of Dominion's Richmond headquarters to protest the granting of an air permit earlier this month for the company's planned new coal-burning power plant in Wise County, Va.

During the protest involving members of Blue Ridge Earth First!, four women locked themselves together and to a concrete-filled barrel while a man using climbing gear dangled off a suspension bridge. Eight supporters watching from the sidelines were also arrested. The action snarled traffic for miles.

There have been other direct-action protests this year against coal plants in North Carolina, Texas, and Kentucky. And in the United Kingdom earlier this month, climate activists occupied a coal train on its way to a power plant.

Last week, Virginia's Air Pollution Control Board approved pollution permits for Dominion's proposed Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, which would burn a mix of coal and other polluting fuels including bituminous coal waste commonly known as "gob." The company said the permit decision "paves the way for us to start construction in the very near future."

(Photo from the blog "It's Getting Hot in Here: Dispatches From the Youth Climate Movement.")