The Ohio Student Environment Coalition took action Monday to protest American Municipal Power's plans to build a 1,000-megawatt coal plant in Meigs County.
The OSEC, a statewide coalition made up of student groups from numerous universities in Ohio, planned to wash the corporation's windows.
"The idea of the action was to help AMP-Ohio see the light," said Matthew Reitman, coordinator of the coalition. "We wanted them to see that they have the wrong approach and to help them see the error of their ways."
When the students arrived at AMP-Ohio's headquarters, they were greeted by police and were unable to perform the window washing.
"The police said we had to stay at the edge of the property or risk arrest," Reitman said.
Despite this minor setback, two members of the coalition were able to go inside and speak with representatives from AMP-Ohio.
"Our spokespeople did get to speak to their spokespeople," Reitman said. "We had already designated who would be going in. It was pretty exciting."
One of the student representatives was freshman Kristen Arnold, a member of OSU groups Free the Planet and Greenspace.
"We sat down with them and in a very nonconfrontational tone, we declared that we are against the use of coal in Ohio, and that we are opposed to the coal plant," Arnold said.
AMP-Ohio was targeted because other coal companies in Ohio have agreed not to build any more plants, said junior Sam Agarwal, who is also a member of Free the Planet.
In response to the coalition's complaints, spokespeople for the corporation told Arnold that they have adopted wind and electric power.
"We're encouraging them to expand that and we're helping them figure out how to," Arnold said. "They were willing to talk about what they're already doing, not really what they'll change. We're going to be putting continued pressure on them."
Members of the coalition who remained outside held up murals of what Ohio might look like with the added coal plant, compared to what it might look with the addition of alternate energy sources.
As the murals intended to show, the Meigs County plant would be detrimental to the state of Ohio, Arnold said.
"I've lived in Ohio my whole life," she said. "And it's a really close-to-home issue. Having more coal plants is detrimental to communities."
The protest included students from a number of universities, including OSU, Bowling Green and University of Dayton, according to a press release.
"This was a good demonstration of the power of young people," Reitman said. "I do think it was effective. We had fun and we got our message across."
Agarwal says young people must take action to make a difference and help the environment.
"We're not going to have what we have now forever," she said. "It's our time to do something about it."
Megan Savage can be reached at savage.119@osu.edu.
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