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TechnoratiRutherford County, N.C. - Some environmental activists used the April 1 holiday to try to prove a point, and some of them were arrested and stunned with Taser guns in the process.
Activists nationwide refer to April 1 as Fossil Fools Day, and they protested the use of fossil fuels in several locations across the country, including North Carolina.
The protesters were in Rutherford County in North Carolina at the Duke Energy facility.
The activists used chains and pipes to try to stop construction at Duke Energy's Cliffside Steam Station, located in both Rutherford and Cleveland counties. They chained themselves to construction equipment and then refused to unlock the chains.
Duke is environmentally enhancing one unit, while adding on another that will replace four older ones.
In a statement, Duke said,
"When these projects are completed in 2012, the Cliffside facility will generate significantly more electricity for our customers while actual emissions decrease ... Cliffside's new unit will be the cleanest and most efficient unit on Duke Energy's system."
The protesters don't buy it. Eight activists chained themselves to the construction equipment. When they wouldn't unlock themselves, deputies loaded them into a van and charged them with trespassing and resisting arrest.
The protesters said calling a coal plant environmental is a lie because they cause climate change and destroy the environment.
Protester Matt Wallace said, "That's essentially signing a death sentence for our generation, so we felt it was necessary to take action."
The protest landed Christine Irvine and seven others in jail for most of the day.
"We were there to stand in solidarity with youth across the country," she said. "We weren't out there but a few minutes before the first patrol car had arrived."
Some of the protester had marks left on their bodies from being stunned by a deputy's Taser, but they said it was worth it.
The Rutherford Sheriff's Office said that the protesters were not Tasered. They said being Tasered means being shot with two electric prongs that are propelled from a Taser gun. Being stunned meant that deputies pulled the trigger and touched the person with the current emitted by the Taser. Deputies said that the protesters were each stunned less than two seconds.
Evan Webb was one of those stunned by deputies, but he says that won't stop the protests.
"We're not stopping any time soon, we're going to keep the pressure on Duke Energy," Webb said.
Duke continues to defend itself, said that the additions and enhancements at Cliffside will decrease emissions such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen and mercury.
© Copyright 2008 by WYFF4.com.
40 Comments so far
Show AllAngstOfThePeople,
Duke is not doing all the can to curb emissions. While they are shutting down 4 coal plants to build the new one, the mercury output of the new plant is projected to be 10 times greater than that of the 4 old plants combined. When I first saw those numbers, I did a bit of a double-take, but I was assured that they were accurate. It just doesn't make sense.
Concerning the use of the stun gun, an instrument used to subdue, on folks who have subdued themselves, it seems silly. They should no longer be considered non-lethal.
sdw917, I know all too well about corporations owning America. I have been fighting their invasion of my farm for about 2 years and I'm getting tired of waiting for the rest of you to get off your asses and come to my assistance!!!
Protesters are the true freedom fighters in this country and every country. Tip to protesters follow the money trail and protest those who allowed the coal plant to be built in the first place. Work with journalists become a journalist. This country is way lacking in journalists, because most journalists in the corporate world of journalism have a choice become corrupted, write palp or look for another job and most become corrupted this is why we have too many coal fired plants and not enough wind farms. Wind is now cheaper than natural gas and if coal were taxed fairly it would be cheaper than coal.
Vaudree
Yes right, I didn't put that together. He did a great job in this presentation. I will look for more of his work. Thanks for the information.
I wonder if they will come out with some type of grounded clothing that will protect people from being tasered?
AngstOfThePeople
That's an interesting choice for a screen name. Are you experiencing the anxiety and depression or just trying to cause more? Since you seem willing to accept the word of corporate psychopaths without question I expect it's the latter.
http://www.vbdems.org/?p=2349
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/18/fossilfuels.carbonem...
Not that you're likely to care.
TreeFrog - that is Naomi Klein's husband interviewing the American Indians about the plant. Native peoples in both our countries have paid the price (while gaining little, if any, benefit) for mining and other such ventures which take place on their designated lands.
Pepper spray and Taser will probably be the choice combination at New Orleans in a few weeks. Then again, I would not put the water gun / Taser combo past them.
Where does Obama stand on the use of Taser guns?
Simply connect the dots of what has recently taken place and is now taking place and you will see where we are going!
It's not a course that includes democracy or due process. And it certainly is not a land where basic civility, decency or dignity is shared.
if they concentrated the tons of pollution on site it would not be an issue…what ignorance.
No, ignorance is protesting despite the fact that the company is already making positive strides towards less emisssions.
Check out the link I posted the last part of the video is about the desert rock coal project...on private land.
Private property my ass...if they concentrated the tons of pollution on site it would not be an issue...what ignorance.
Better the taser than a .45 calibre hollow point, eh? It sounds as if things are going from bad to worse in America. The message is out there: if you protest there'll be pain. 1984!
P.S. Can the rest of the world save America? Check my post.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Get out in the street boys and girls–do it NOW! the prison camps are already being built–by Haliburton, I believe. WE will soon lose all HOPE of a country if we continue to complain on the internet and do NOTHING in our lives. Exactly WHEN do we organize a nation-wide strike?? I don't care if we strike as consumers or workers–we have to RIP THE LEVERS OF POWER FROM THE ELITE. WE DO THIS BY THROWING SAND IN THE GEARS OF THIS MACHINE.
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" — Mario Savio, Berkeley Free Speech Movement
Move or we die!
Get out in the street boys and girls–do it NOW! the prison camps are already being built–by Haliburton, I believe. WE will soon lose all HOPE of a country if we continue to complain on the internet and do NOTHING in our lives. Exactly WHEN do we organize a nation-wide strike?? I don't care if we strike as consumers or workers–we have to RIP THE LEVERS OF POWER FROM THE ELITE. WE DO THIS BY THROWING SAND IN THE GEARS OF THIS MACHINE.
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" — Mario Savio, Berkeley Free Speech Movement
Move or we die!
Punishment for political dissent! The Bush way to Democracy.
Waterboarding next?
for one, im not a brownshirt, so cut the shit. for another, its private property and a rather silly protest being as they are actually making an effort at combatting greenhouse emissions. As to a pro 2A lefty, I think that's as close to an oxymoron as Ive ever heard.
Angstofthepeople according to your first response if I merly hurt you and don't kill you no harm no foul. BTW I am a pro second amendment lefty here, not all lefties are just going to go down without a fight when faced with brownshirts like yourself.
gimpy -
As long as our corporations run the government by proxy, we will never get serious about global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. It is not healthy for the bottom line, therefore not good for shareholders. The investors, capitalists and powerful - they're more important than you and I, or our children, will ever be. Can't you see that? ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVVIhUmpMWA
Decreased mercury is about like being a little bit pregnant.
Good work by Buffalo Ken to analyze the claim by Duke that it will reduce emissions by building the new coal generator. Ken says it clearly here:
"...in the end emissions are not going down per the intent of the Clean Smokestacks law and CO2 emissions are going up considerably."
Other comments here tend to troll the issue. Now if someone is coming here to contest the facts, that's one thing, it's wholly another simply to contest for the sake of contesting. If you are a right winger and insist on opposing the progressive viewpoint, I welcome your criticism based on objective facts. I would do no less on one of your forums.
I hope all Americans fully understand the significance of increased coal emissions. Mercury is already going up at 5%/year, and polluting water sources and ocean fish as it works its way through the aquifer. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin which will retard development in youth and greatly harm fetuses.
There is more on the MTR (Mountaintop Removal) debate. I recommend everyone to check out ilovemountains.org and other sites...
When is this nation going go get serious about global warming and greenhouse gas emissions?! If you go to the website of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and read the docket you will find horror stories of what is being done to citizens across this country everyday in the name of energy. We are having pipelines crammed down our throats using Eminent Domain, the environment is falling victim to this assault and in the Southwest, where there is an "energy corridor" that has been "fast tracked", the Endangered Species Act is being ignored. It is time to pull the rug out from under the big energy companies and the Bush administration by rescinding the Energy Policy Act of 2005, handcrafted by Dick Cheney and his cohorts. Write your Senators today and demand that they revisit this free pass that was handed to big energy.
mrraven - Im not one for non violent resistance, so you may try....
they were on private property and having read Duke's efforts in emissions compliance, I am satisfied with their response.
Once again, I want to put out to CD posters/readers the awareness of the "Raygun" that the Bush Regime is ready to roll out when things start getting really bad. When food, water, oil becomes scarce for even the middle class of this country. It was like an infomercial on 60 Minutes (three weeks ago, or maybe a month ago)and basically what it is is a Taser than can taser hundreds of people at once. From a mile away. Hundreds of people will move at once to get away from this "non-lethal" torture machine. And so ends dissent. So ends America. It's, true, we've been a hypocritical nation since our founding.... genocide of the people who lived on this land, slavery, all of us indebted to the Man, always ruled by the creme de la creme. So perhaps it's good, the hypocrisy is being blown away. And so is the right to organize and protest, which is the very foundation (supposedly) of our great experiment. I'm readying myself to leave, I hope I can find safe harbor away from this frightening land. I'm 56, I grew up with duck and cover, totally freaked out about nuclear war. There have been wars because of America since I was born. The lies we were fed, we baby boomers, they are non-stop. The greed of these evil people knows no bounds.
I think I'm going to Ecuador, that nation is kicking out the US airbase there. That's a step in the right direction.
Private property Ãœber Alles! Don't mess with the Capitalists. They have the authorities on their side.
Angstofthepeople does that mean I can beat you if I don't kill you? Hint next time think before you just fire off a Lush Scumbaugh talking point.
better the taser than the .40 caliber hollowpoint.
Well I say, the question is: Is Duke using the best available solutions to remove toxins from the coal fired plant? If so I have to applaud them on the whole. There are so many coal-fired plants that, thanks in large part to the Bush-Cheney rape-pillage-and-destroy-America Administration are continuing to produce large amounts of pollutants which are, among other things, causing things like autism and destruction of our environment.
Add to that I would much rather have a clean coal plant adding CO2 to the environment than a super dangerous in many many ways(from the extraction of uranium ore to the plant itself) nuclear fission plants. Nuclear fission is a much worse alternative.
Duke should put out much more details about what exactly they are doing and are they upgrading their other plants etc.
The bush White House with their destructive policies can do what they want; but the protests will continue.
The protest will continue. Taser people-jail people-it doesn't matter others will take our place. We'll keep right on protesting. Regardless of what they do-we'll keep protesting!
Many people in North Carolina (myself included) are opposed to this expansion at the Cliffside facility. It is a bad idea in oh so many ways. To me it is as if we are literally at the cliff side. Anyhow, as best I can tell, Duke Power was able to recieve an air permit to construct another conventional coal-fired power plant only by virtue of obtaining a special exemption that in essence nullified otherwise applicable provisions of the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) rule.
Here is a bit of background on the very complicated PSD rule. To avoid much more stringent requirements, the PSD rule requires that any increase in emissions of SO2 and NOx from a proposed project are offset by creditable reductions. Reductions that are already required by another rule are NOT creditable. North Carolina had previously passed a much lauded "Clean Smokestacks" law that was going to require Duke to reduce emissions at Cliffside regardless of any new construction. Thus, reductions in emissions from the older equipment at the Cliffside facility that were already required by the Clean Smokestacks law should NOT have been creditable for the purpose of building any new equipment.
Nonetheless, in a document prepared by the state air permitting agency, NCDENR (August 14, 2007 PSD Preconstruction Review and Preliminary Determination) on pages 14-15 it is stated:
"The reductions in emissions used by Duke in this application.....were part of the reductions required under the Clean Smokestacks Act and would have been disallowed under the current rule."
But, "amazingly", the NC legislature by virtue of Senate Bill 1587 (signed by the Governor on August 23, 2006) created an "after-the-fact grandfather-clause" enabling use of the required Clean Smokestack emission reductions as credits to build new plants. Without these credits construction of such a facility most likely would not have been feasible, and in the end emissions are not going down per the intent of the Clean Smokestacks law and CO2 emissions are going up considerably.
To me this is just a small example of the kind of shenanigans that go on behind the scenes all the time. I suspect the folks in the NC legislature didn't even exactly realize what they were doing (these regulations are ridiculously complicated), but in the end Duke got what it wanted (as I suspect Duke normally does in North Carolina).
Unless Duke changes their mind it will just be "business as usual" and more mountains will be blown away so that more of the old life (coal) can be burned with all of the resulting CO2 and other nasties like mercury being spewed into the air. It is all a big shame, and Duke should know better.
I share the sentiment of the protesters. Our future is being jeopardized, and we simply cannot continue on with "business as usual". When will we learn?
Peace,
Ken
Tasers are not the answer to every crime we see. They can be deadly in the hands of the average untrained individual. It certainly does not look as if the authorities are training their personnel in the proper use of the taser. Tasers need regulation in the hands of the police and other authority type figures. They should be reviewed as a weapon of possible deadly force. What the hell a potentially lethal weapon is doing being used in some of these situations is beyond me. My personal opinion is they are NFG and their use should be curtailed now, sooner rather than later.
What is about Americans, that they like torture so much? Makes me want to change my nationality.
TASERS are TORTURE
Decrease emissions such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen and mercury?
Decrease by how much, like eliminate all of it?
`Ol King Coal and the folks at J.P. Moron will torture, maim and kill to make another buck.
I have a (progressive) friend who happens to be a civilian employee of a major metropolitan police department. A few years ago, I was sounding off to him about the Philadelphia PD's reprehensible practice of summarily executing mentally deranged persons who are acting out violently. The idea that the only "practical" solution is to shoot a mentally disturbed person who doesn't "cooperate" with police ought to be intolerable to any thoughtful, civilized person.
My friend agreed, but mentioned that his PD had begun issuing "stun guns" which would enable cops to take such persons into custody without lasting physical harm. It sounded like a real advancement to both of us, a tool that presumably would be used with discretion and judiciousness to solve a difficult and persistent problem.
I haven't been in touch with him recently, but I'm interested to find out if he's just as troubled as I am by the fact that these "stun guns"-- now better known as "Tasers"-- have so quickly come to be misused and abused to gratify police officers' own aggressive, even sadistic, impulses.
Unfortunately, such "tools" are only as advanced and enlightened as their users.
Looks like the definition of taser is experiencing a semantic circle jerk ... just like the definition of torture has.
It's scary that law enforcement officers are being armed with tasers and using them against protestors. I guess mace is obsolete, just like protesting will be soon. Intimidation seems to work with this administration so others follow suit.
So if the Taser's prongs aren't shot, it's just plain sadism. Like dabbing tear gas into eyes with Q-tips. Can't be much of a threat at that point.
The Rutherford Sheriff's Office said that the protesters were not Tasered. They said being Tasered means being shot with two electric prongs that are propelled from a Taser gun. Being stunned meant that deputies pulled the trigger OF THE TASER GUN and touched the person with the current emitted by the Taser. Deputies said that the protesters were each stunned less than two seconds.
Mayber they should call it "Cattle Prodding" instead? How about "Enhanced Electical Pursuasion"?
Chaining yourself to equipment is an aggressive form of protest. Not that it justifies the use of tasers, but definitely invites unpleasant intervention, especially when the protester refuses to unfasten himself from equipment he doesn't own. What did these people expect to happen? They knew full well what they might be in for, and I dare say that they planned to use this publicity to advance their cause--right or wrong.