Actress Daryl Hannah was arrested this afternoon in West Virginia along with NASA climatologist James Hansen, local activist Michael Brune of Rainforest Action Network, Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds, 94-year-old former U.S. Representative Ken Hechler and more than a dozen others.
They were protesting at an elementary school threatened by a 2.8-billion-gallon coal sludge impoundment where coal dust in the air exceeds acceptable limits. Protestors trespassed on land owned by coal giant Massey Energy.
The protest is part of a string of increasingly dramatic actions objecting to the Obama Administration's announcement that the EPA will reform, but not abolish, mountaintop removal mining. Later this week, Congress will host a hearing titled, "The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia."
Hannah has long been a serious environmental activist—perhaps as serious as any but Leonardo DiCaprio.