Environmental activist and attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. headlined the rally against mountaintop removal, urging an enthusiastic crowd to continue fighting what he called the "tyrannical practices" of the mining industry.

"This is a crime," said Kennedy, son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. "They are literally liquidating this state for cash."

Kennedy spoke at a rally organized by Coal River Mountain Watch and other groups who oppose mountaintop removal and are making a Massey Energy operation that is blasting apart Coal River Mountain the focus of their national campaign.

The groups want the Obama administration to ban mountaintop removal and take over regulation of the strip-mining industry from the DEP.

"The whole world is watching," said Judy Bonds, a leader of the group. "We are ground zero to save the earth."

Among the other speakers was Mike Roselle, a longtime environmental activist who has been leading civil disobedience protests aimed at shutting down Massey's operations.

"We're putting pressure on these agencies, and we're going to make them do their jobs," Roselle said.

Several hundred miners, other industry employees and coal supporters repeatedly chanted and cheered to drown out the environmental group speakers. Several coal trucks repeatedly circled the block, blaring their horns.

Miners waved American flags, and displayed signs that said, "Hey Kennedy clan, fix your morals before destroying our family's jobs," "If you're against coal, then turn off your lights," and "Proud and Loud: WV Coal Miners."

Mining supporters and mountaintop-removal opponents were separated by barricades that divided the DEP parking lot. State Police troopers patrolled the zone between the groups, though Kennedy briefly went over and talked to miners before taking the podium.

"My kids depend on coal," said surface miner Pete Smith, who works for Republic Energy. "I'm worried to death because that's all I've done all my life."

Monday's focus on mountaintop removal came as delegates from around the world gathered in Copenhagen for talks on combating global warming and as the Obama administration announced its formal finding that greenhouse gas emissions are endangering public health.

Pressure has also been building on mountaintop removal.

Environmental groups aren't satisfied with the Obama administration's plans to more closely review mining permits, and want new rules in place to halt the practice.

Coal industry officials and their political supporters have criticized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency permit reviews, saying they have ground new permit issuances to a halt across the Appalachian coalfields.

Kennedy told the crowd he recalled his father talking about the battles to end strip-mining in the region in the 1960s. He said his father told him it didn't make sense for West Virginia to be among the nation's poorest states, given its huge coal resources.

Today, Kennedy said, the situation is worse. Large earth-moving machines allow the industry to mine record amounts of coal with fewer workers than ever before. The West Virginia counties with the most mountaintop removal are the poorest in the state, he said.

"It's because of the tyrannical practices of an industry that is liquidating the state for cash by tearing down the mountains," Kennedy said. "They're not just destroying the environment. They're forever impoverishing the communities.

"This is a moral issue," he said. "We don't have a right to destroy what we can't re-create. It was God who made these mountains, and it's [Massey Energy President] Don Blankenship who is tearing them down."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.