Juan Carlos Davila and Laura Gottesdiener of Democracy Now! report on the growing movement in Puerto Rico of residents who are demanding that the island’s only coal-fired power plant be closed. Wearing hazardous waste suits, demonstrators dumped buckets of toxic coal ash onto the steps of the government’s capitol building in San Juan to draw attention to Applied Energy Systems, a private company, is polluting natural resources. Activists Jocelyn Velasquez and Yanina Moreno spoke about the risks posed by the poisonous ash to their health and the environment, which led community members to attempt to stop the dumping via blockade, which was broken up by government forces. Photo credit: Democracy Now!
