A performance artist and self-ordained reverend was arrested Sunday for dumping mounds of dirt in two New York City branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank, which he says is the country’s biggest financier of mountaintop mining.
From Courthouse News Service:
Rev. Billy [Talen] led his Life After Shopping Gospel Choir to two East Village Chase branches, where the singers “deposited” mounds of “sacred dirt from Coal River Mountain, West Virginia” on the floors of ATM lobbies.
“There’s cancer in the mud in the promised land,” the Rev. Billy intoned.
Rev. Billy was later released.
On April 1, the Environmental Protection Agency announced tighter restrictions on mountaintop mining, which relies on explosives to remove large volumes of earth and expose coal seams. The waste can compromise water and air quality, and subsequently public health. A January article in the journal Science reported that mountaintop mining might be related to high rates of heart, lung and kidney disease.
