Court Sets Bail for Mountaintop Mining Protestors at $100,000

Two young activists arrested this morning for protesting mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia will have to come up with $100,000 in bail if they want to leave jail any time soon, a West Virginia court ruled today. The Associated Press reports:

Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Chad Barker says 18-year-old EmmaKate Martin and 23-year-old Ben Bryant were charged with trespassing, conspiracy, obstruction and littering.

He says they left garbage near their platform over the road in Julian.

The irony of the last charge certainly won’t be lost on Appalachian environmentalists and community groups, who’ve been screaming for decades about the polluting effects of mountaintop removal, mostly to deaf ears.