Demotix / Splash NewsOscar-nominated Babe actor James Cromwell, 75, was recently arrested for taking part in a protest near a construction site of a power plant in upstate New York.
New York State Police said in a statement that on Friday, at about 9 a.m., officers detained six people for disorderly conduct after they blocked the entrance to the site. They were later released and are due in court in January.
Cromwell, who lives about 25 miles south of the site, was seen holding his fist in the air while sitting at the entrance of the plant, located on a highway near the town of Wawayanda, and leading about 30 protesters in a chant, shouting "Power to the people! Power to the people!" The Times Herald-Record reported.
"People have a right to live without fear that their communities will be polluted, poisoned and destroyed by an industry that puts its lust for profit ahead of the well being of everyone and ultimately threatens the survival of all life on earth," Cromwell later told E! News in a statement.
During the protest, he and two other protesters placed an interlocking device around their necks, prompting a state trooper to use a bolt cutter from the construction site to remove it, the outlet added. They were placed in handcuffs after defying orders to move from the entrance.
Opponents of the $900 million natural gas-fired power plant say it would release toxic emissions that could cause cancer and asthma and fear it could lower property values and affect threatened nearby species like the bog turtle and the northern long-eared bat, The Times Herald-Record reported. The newspaper said in January that CPV has said the proposed plant passed all air-quality reviews.
Cromwell, who has also starred in the show American Horror Story and the movies The Green Mile The Artist and Star Trek: First Contact, is a known environmental and animal rights activist. Earlier this month, he and another protester interrupted an Orange County Partnership's annual awards presentation to speak out against the construction of the power plant and were booted from the event.
In 2013, he was arrested at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for helping to interrupt a Board of Regents meeting to protest about a school research project that PETA said involves "abusive experiments" of cats. The director of the college's Research Animal Resource Center called allegations "baseless."
In 2001, Cromwell led PETA protest on the roof of Wendy's restaurant in Virginia.