NASA climatologist James Hansen (center) gets arrested at West Virginia anti-coal protest yesterday.

Hundreds of anti-coal/anti-mountaintop removal activists gathered for a historic protest in Coal River Valley, West Virginia yesterday. The top headlines are that NASA climatologist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah and 94-year-old former WV congressman Ken Hechler were among 30 arrested for sitting down on a highway outside of Massey Energy, the leading mountaintop removal coal mining company. A large number of coal supporters also showed up and were described as being aggressive toward the other rally participants. Coal River Mountain Watch co-director Judy Goldman was reportedly hit in the face by a Massey supporter, who was apprehended by police just before attempting to assault a coal miner’s widow/community activist.

Here are a couple jumping off points from this action:

-Charleston Gazette staff writer Ken Ward Jr. blogged about the action, raising the point that both sides of the coal debate could claim a victory yesterday. This leads to a number of important questions, namely “So what next?” but also, “What about the miners? Who can argue that they don’t have a right to stand up for their jobs and their families?” The Gazette blog offers some good analysis.

-Robert Kennedy Jr. helped rally protesters for the yesterday’s action while at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee over the weekend, telling the crowd, “Let’s get arrested!” However, I haven’t seen any reference to him being at the protest.

-James Hansen has agreed to debate Massey Energy President Don Blankenship later this week.

-Hansen also wrote a plea to President Obama to put an end to mountaintop coal mining.

-Video of 94-year-old former WV Congressman Ken Hechler talking about why he’s become a “hell raiser.”