4 arrested atop generator part

COLUMBIA -- Protesters against coal power attached themselves Monday to a nearly 1 million pound generator part bound for North Carolina for more than an hour before deputies were able to remove them.

Duke Energy said the protest in a South Carolina parking lot shouldn't slow the three-month trip to move the equipment, called a stator, from a port in the southern part of the state to a power-generating plant under construction near Cliffside, N.C.

The part had been parked in a lot near Greenville for about a week when four protesters scaled a fence around 8:45 a.m. Monday and climbed to the top and refused to get down, Greenville County Master Deputy Melissia McKinney said.

The protesters unfurled a banner that said "Stop Cliffside" before two of them were arrested, said Attila Nemecz, spokesman for Asheville Rising Tide, which staged the protest.

Two more were able to lock their arms and sleeves through parts of the machine and stayed on top of it for more than an hour before deputies cut them away and arrested them, Nemecz said.

Rachel Scarano, 21; Catherine MacDougal, 22; Julia Page, 20; and Paul Loomis, 21, all were charged with disorderly conduct, deputies said. They face up to 30 days in jail or a $100 fine if convicted of the misdemeanor.

This isn't the first time the group has protested the new power plant. Several dozen members of Asheville Rising Tide were arrested after an April rally in Charlotte, Nemecz said.

Members have tried to halt the plant through government action but had no success, Nemecz said.

"We're tired of waiting. We're going to take serious enough action to stop construction of this global-warming, pollution-causing death machine," Nemecz said.

The protest happened just off U.S. Highway 25 a few miles south of Interstate 85 near Greenville. Duke Energy left the part there for about a week as they finalized its slow trip through one of South Carolina's most populated areas. The journey was to resume Monday night, with the part arriving at the plant not far from Boiling Springs, N.C., in mid-December, utility spokesman Andy Thompson said.