Police arrest dozens of environmental activists in Washington

Police in the US State of Washington have arrested dozens of environmental activists partaking in a protest against the use of fossil fuels.

Some 150 people spent three days camping out on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train track before 52 of them were arrested on Sunday, officials with the Skagit County Department of Emergency Management said.

The protest was held near the Shell and Tesoro oil refineries around Anacortes and was part of a nationwide movement in the fight against the use of fossil fuels.

The railroad connects BNSF's mainline to Anacortes and serves the two refineries as well as other customers.

Police said most of the detainees were cited for trespassing that led to a two-day shutdown  of the railroad.

Similar demonstrations were held in Los Angeles and Albany, New York, on Saturday and in Washington DC, on Sunday.

Organizers say they are working to preserve the rights of workers and communities whose rights are being neglected and that they are willing to risk arrest for the cause.

More than 500 activists have expressed their readiness to continue the protests in the face of arrest by law enforcement, according to the organizers.

Officials with both Shell and Tesoro said in earlier statements that they respected people’s right to demonstrate.

Last year, many of the nearly 40 groups involved in the protests took part in a large on-water kayak protest against Shell's Arctic oil drilling rig when it parked at a port in Seattle.

America, the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter, gets 84% of its total energy from fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, according to the US National Academy of Sciences.

Fossil fuels, the biggest source of man-made pollutant gases, are still used much more widely than clean renewable sources like wind and solar power.

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