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Leaders in Energy & Environment Greenpeace Protestor, Josh Raisler Cohn, Goes to Jail over Protesting Air Pollution Standards of Hatsfield Ferry Power Station by Josh Raisler Cohn On Feb. 15, 2005, I was sentenced to serve 30 days in the Green County Prison in southwestern Pennsylvania for an action I was a part of last summer. My co-defendants all received sentences of 5 days in jail. On June 23rd six of us climbed a 700 foot smokestack at the Hatsfield Ferry Power Station, one of the dirtiest coal fired power plants in the country. We hung a 120 foot tall banner declaring "The Bush Energy Plan Kills, Clean Energy Now." Within 24 hours of touching the ground we had both state and federal charges -- including a charge amended under the USAPATRIOT ACT-which all added up to about 90 years in prison. Over the past few months we had some of the state felonies thrown out, and the federal charges are dismissed "pending resolution of the state case." We were unable to plea bargain down to only misdemeanors, and after Allegheny Power, who owns the plant where we hung the banner approached us, we entered into a deal with them. We, as individuals, and Greenpeace USA agreed to stay off their property for five years in exchange for the remaining felony being dismissed. Our lawyers were confident that we could easily be convicted of all charges, including the felony, and that due to my record I would serve a lengthy prison sentence if we went to trial. The decision to agree to this deal was a painful one, made with a heavy heart on my part, but it is the decision we all came to in the face of an unjust felony charge and an overzealous prosecutor. I will likely serve out this imprisonment in the Green County Prison in Waynesburg PA. Letters can be sent to me at: Josh Raisler Cohn Below is my Sentencing Statement to the court. Know that you are all an inspiration to me. Love and Struggle, Josh Sentencing Statement, Greene Country Courthouse. Feb 15, 2005 Josh Raisler Cohn I would like to acknowledge that whatever happens to us here in court today is slight compared to the impact on citizens of Greene and nearby counties who live in the shadow of these toxic, poisonous coal power plants. In 2002, according to energy policy analysts who contracted for the Bush Administration, the pollution from the Hatsfield Ferry power plant caused 237 deaths. Along with shortened lives these power plants also cause asthma, heart disease, cancer and other serious illness. The impacts do not stop at humans. Every lake, river and stream in the state of Pennsylvania has a mercury advisory on it, which impacts people here, as well as everyone downstream. Acid rain contributes to deforestation from here to the Great Smokey Mountains, and eastward to the Atlantic. With deforestation comes a loss of habitat for all of the wildlife and flora that rely on intact ecosystems to survive. But the dirty coal industry, from mountaintop removal mines to pollution from the stacks is ripping out the very life support system of the planet. I believe this is unacceptable. I believe in political protest and direct action. For me direct action is an expression of hope and love, a call for us all to move towards a more just, egalitarian and sustainable world. Growing up I learned about direct action as a core component of the history of this country, from a rebellion against unjust taxation to enslaved Africans escaping bondage in a bid for self-determination, to Black Americans and White Women putting their bodies on the line for equal rights and fair treatment. Many things we take for granted were won through direct action. The right to vote was not given freely to many people in this country. The 8 hour work day and child labor laws were not gifts from a benevolent boss. These are things that were fought for and died for by the people, for the people. Direct action is an American tradition and it deserves to be treated as such. We all share some level of responsibility for the problems in society. When we know that people are dying from environmental pollution, if we don't do something about it, we are letting it happen. Of course there is a difference between the people who are deciding not to clean up the emission from Hatsfield Ferry and people who simply do nothing about it because they don't see the effects. But by not acting, we allow the problems to continue. Complicity is a heavy burden, and in my life that burden is lightened by acting, breaking a cycle of complicity and silence by saying "no more." Any sentence that you impose today will do nothing to change the conditions that got us in "trouble" with laws and government in the first place. It will not solve the problems that come from environmental pollution and human illness caused by Hatsfield Ferry and other plants like it. It will not solve the economic injustice which allows people with more money move out from the shadows of these plants, while leaving poorer people no option but to continue living in a place where the air is darkened by toxic clouds. It will not solve the problem that companies like Allegheny Power turn a profit while jeopardizing our health and well being. We live in a country where the profit margin of a company is prioritized over the health of a family or the purity of a mountain stream. Power companies pay fines for violating environmental regulations instead or cleaning up their emissions to increase their profit margins. They are never around to pay though when that next bill comes in for an inhaler, a round of chemotherapy, or for a coffin. Economic indicators, like the GDP, go up every time someone is diagnosed with cancer, every time the top of a mountain is blown off to gut the coal from deep below. We as citizens participating in a democratic process for change are criminalized for boldly and dramatically petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. We hung a banner. That's it. We are criminalized by the judicial process while the Bush Administration weakened the Clean Air Act so plants like Hatsfield Ferry can continue to pollute. One charge we are pleading guilty to is recklessly endangering another person. We were meticulous in our preparations and during the demonstration as well. We took great care to make sure that no one would be hurt, that there would be no interruption of service, and that banner could not billow out very far. Between 2000 and 2002 Hatsfield Ferry knowingly, recklessly released over 500,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 70,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 1,500 pounds of mercury - a dangerous neurotoxin. Who is reckless, and who is in danger? In the 1300's in Ireland, there was an interesting way that people worked to resolve disputes. If someone felt they were wronged they could go to the home of the person who they were upset with and sit on that person's doorstep and refuse to eat. They would not eat until the person offered them food, an act which was some acknowledgment of the problem, and an offer to move forward. I learned this history from the writings of imprisoned suffragists, who often declared hunger strikes after being imprisoned for holding banners in front of the white house during WWI in their efforts to win white women the right to vote. As long as I am imprisoned, and there is no prosecution of Allegheny power for the deaths, illness and ecological destruction it has caused, I will not eat. But I offer to the court, and to Ms. Fox, what you are welcome to join us in this struggle for justice, and a good first step could be to start investigating and prosecuting Hatsfield Ferry for it's violations of the law. About the Author(s): Thanks to Mark Barnsley for forwarding the letter. Josh in turn thanks Christy, cpardew@soaw.org, to whom readers can send e-mails, if they have questions. See under Our Contributors to find out about the Author(s) of this article. |
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