On Saturday, protesters arrived to demonstrate in front of the Grant Town Power Plant in Marion County, West Virginia. The power plant is known to have ties to Senator Joe Manchin; the power plant is run by a company owned by Manchin’s son, Joe Manchin IV, and in Manchin’s 2020 tax filing it was shown that Manchin gained nearly $500,000 from the company.
The crowd was very impressive for a rainy day, with around 200 people consistently protesting throughout the day. The protests officially started at 1:00 pm and ended at 6:00 pm. The crowd size increased at around 2 o’clock, when people from the Poor People’s Campaign, including Reverend William Barber, arrived in front of the power plant. The protesters were protesting, with some blocking the entrance of the power plant, the power plant’s ties to Senator Manchin and dissatisfaction with the Senator’s reluctance to support the Build Back Better Bill, which would have provided a significant amount of money towards combating climate change.
Even though a couple days prior to the demonstration the Marion County Sheriff said that the police would be prepared for the demonstration, the sheer number of police was very unexpected. Police began to arrive at the power plant around two hours before the protests began. At least ten state trooper cars drove past the entrance at that time. According to West Virginia Rising, the organizers of the protests, during the protests 16 people were arrested for breaching private property. These arrests were done swiftly at the beginning of protests and there were no other arrests made for trespassing private property afterwards. The interesting formation of the blockaders made it more difficult to arrest them as they were connected to each other with this pipesque structure (pictured below) which the police had to break through before putting them in police cars.
During the demonstration multiple people spoke in front of the power plant. All with scathing rhetoric against Manchin. While the protests were centered on Manchin’s record on climate change, other issues were raised such as the opioid epidemic, rising drug prices, and voting rights. At one occasion one of the speakers said that Manchin had blood on his hands due to his daughter (Heather Bresch former CEO of Mylan) increasing the cost of EpiPen’s and Manchin’s reluctance to support legislation that would address the increasing prices of prescription drugs. Another speaker talked about Joe Manchin’s lack of will to tackle voting rights. Reverend Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign spoke of increasing the minimum wage, healthcare, and strengthening unions. A common thread among speakers was that Manchin was the sole person standing between millions of Americans getting green jobs and addressing climate change and that West Virginia voters would remember his actions when they vote in the 2024 elections.
For more info about West Virginia rising, here is their website.