SPECTRUM NEWS • March 21, 2022
Climate change activists from Maine will be on trial in New Hampshire this week as they defend their 2019 blockade of a train carrying coal to a power plant in the Granite State town of Bow. The five defendants were arrested on misdemeanor criminal trespass charges for protesting on a railroad bridge in Hooksett, N.H., where they delayed a shipment of coal to Merrimack Station. “Activists will make the case that the harm of burning coal necessitates direct action to protect people and the planet,” the campaign said. The power plant is the last in New England that still uses coal and now supplies about 1% of the region’s electricity annually.