Protesters interrupted executives from some of the world's largest coal companies today at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

At a standing-room-only hearing of the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, five protesters clad in surgical masks threw lumps of coal in front of executives from Arch Coal Inc., Peabody Energy Corp. and Rio Tinto, holding up their hands to reveal the black dust left behind.

"Coal is dirty. Coal will always be dirty," shouted one of the protesters, who were organized by Campus Progress, the youth wing of the Center for American Progress.

A protester confronts Peabody Energy CEO Greg Boyce during a hearing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace.

Committee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called for security to remove the protesters. After no security officials appeared, the protesters stood silently for a few moments before leaving of their own volition.

The executives sat silently until the protesters left. Peabody CEO Greg Boyce then resumed his testimony, expressing his company's opposition to legislation (H.R. 2454) the House passed last summer that would limit U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide.

The goal of the protest was to draw attention to the damage the coal industry is doing to young people, said Campus Progress climate advocate Tommaso Boggia, 23.

"We have submitted letters and we organize lobby days, but the truth of the matter is coal executives and lobbyists get a ton of face time with members of Congress and their staffers. We bring them a letter and it goes into a pile," Boggia said. "Without the type of access that lobbyists and corporations that give so much money have, we have to find more creative ways to get our point across."

The protest was not directed at Markey, whom Boggia described as "a big champion for our generation in standing up to the fossil fuel industries."