The protest events, sponsored by groups including Canaries in the Coalfields, Tri-State Citizens Mining Network, Mountain Justice Summer and the Allegheny County Green Party, are set to begin at 11:30am US EDT at the Gateway Center Parkette on Liberty Avenue between Commonwealth Place and Stanwix Street.

From there, the groups plan to march down Liberty Avenue and 10th Street to the David L Lawrence Convention Center, where a series of activists are scheduled to speak “about the true cost of coal” beginning at 12:30pm. Judy Bonds, who was arrested for trespassing onto Massey Coal’s Goals Coal property in West Virginia last week during a rally by Coal River Mountain Watch, will be among the speakers.

“We are standing up for our health, for good jobs, and for energy independence in Pennsylvania,” the groups’ co-statement read, touting the events of the day as a “legal, permitted rally and march” and inviting their supporters to “join the clean energy revolution”

The groups have also planned a benefit folk music/bluegrass concert, “Celebration for a Coal-Free Future”, in the Garfield section of the city, June 8.