James Hansen

Eleven climate change activists are due in court today on criminal charges after they blockaded a planned $1.8bn coal-fired power plant, providing an American echo of the Kingsnorth Six trial.

The activists were arrested last month in rural Wise County, Virginia, at the gates of a power plant being built by Dominion, the No 2 utility in the US. The 11 chained themselves to steel barrels that held aloft a banner, lit by solar panels, challenging the utility to provide cleaner energy for a region ravaged by abusive coal mining.

Charged with unlawful assembly and obstruction of justice, the group has been dubbed the Dominion 11 in homage to Kingsnorth. Dr James Hansen, the leading US climate change scientist, has followed his testimony on behalf of the Kingsnorth protesters with an offer of help to the Virginia activists.

The Americans have yet to attract the national attention won by their counterparts in the UK. But for Hannah Morgan, a member of the 11, her case is only one chapter in a long battle against the coal industry that has been raging under the general public's radar.

"Civil disobedience is something that can be incredibly effective, but it needs to be part of a larger campaign," the 20-year-old Morgan said.

In that spirit, opponents of the Wise County plant have staged more than a dozen demonstrations since the facility was first proposed 18 months ago. During the same week that a dozen activists protested outside Dominion headquarters, lawyers for the Sierra Club and other groups were pleading with state air quality officials to deny permits to the plant, which would emit 5.37m tonnes of CO2 every year.

Nine of the 11 face four misdemeanour charges at today's hearing, each of which carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine, according to Michael Abbott, the county's deputy commonwealth attorney.

The remaining two, including Morgan, have also been charged with criminal trespassing and encouraging unlawful assembly. Whether they plan to use climate change to defend their protest as necessary, as the Kingsnorth Six did, remains to be seen.

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