Since Sen. Joe Manchin has blockaded Democrats’ landmark Build Back Better climate and jobs legislation, at least 400 West Virginians and allied activists say they are planning to return the gesture in kind by blockading Senator Manchin’s family business at the Grant Town Power Plant on Saturday, April 9.

Dozens of activists, working in coalition under the banner West Virginia Rising and with support from organizations like Rising Tide North America, are planning to risk arrest by blocking traffic to the 80-megawatt, coal-fired plant in Grant Town, West Virginia. Senator Manchin makes nearly $500,000 per year from his family business Enersystems, Inc., which sells coal gob to the Grant Town Power Plant. Senator Manchin’s son, Joseph Manchin IV, runs the company.

Manchin founded Enersystems, a Fairmont, West Virginia-based coal brokerage firm, in 1988. He reported making $5.6 million off company stock from 2010 to 2020 — all while working to protect the coal industry and gut critical environmental laws to increase his own revenues as part of the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which he has chaired since February 3, 2021.