Moving Beyond Dirty Energy

Bank of America got punk'd bad today in a hilarious mock site called YourBofA. On the site, BofA CEO Brian Moynihan, "publically admits" that Bank of America had cheated the nation out of bililons of dollars, engaged in predatory lending practices, executed aggressive and discriminatory foreclosure campaigns, and made the disastrous choice of investing in coal and moutain top removal.

Tomorrow is Tax Day -- many of us are anxiously awaiting out tax returns or getting ready to write a big fat check to the government.

Due to corporate tax breaks many large US companies are not required to pay income taxes to the federal government. In fact, 2009 and 2010, Great Plains (KCP&L's Parent Company) also avoided all state income taxes and received refunds totaling more than $5 million.

Meanwhile, KCPL is raining rates left and right. Ratepayers in Missouri will pay a 15% increase in the coming year.

Written by University of Mary Washington Student, Abbie Rogers.

I stand in solidarity with students at Michigan State University because I believe there is no room for corporate-induced environmental determinism in on college campuses.

Hailing from a quaint but growing apple-producing town nestled into the Shenandoah Valley, I was treated to the childhood we all deserve: finding deer tracks in the snow each winter and crushing up wild berries for makeshift ink in the spring. I had clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and countless natural havens like those Muir once wrote about: “places to play in, and places to pray in.” Without even having to earn it, I was given a clean and untainted slate with which to map my future.

Peaks away, my brothers and sisters in Appalachia had a very different upbringing. Insatiable corporate greed and its obsession with cheap energy quite literally bombed their mountain homes to claw at the coal underneath. Rivers ran red, from cadmium, arsenic and mercury leaching while entire species disappeared, including (but not limited to) the humans who lived there--for if the blasting, poisoned water and legal debt didn’t kill them, the doubled risk of cancer sure would. The environment for my neighbors was nothing short of inhibiting, a Jacob Marley-like chain they didn’t even begin to deserve.

On Monday, April 9, three Maryland students were arrested in front of the Annapolis State House in support of offshore wind. (There will be a post with more about the whole campaign coming later). They agreed to share their stories about their decision to risk arrest, the consequences of civil disobedience, and how civil disobedience as a tactic fits into campaigns as a whole. Below are excerpts from our interview, for which they graciously took time out of their crazy schedules.

[Photo: University of Maryland student Sam Rivers is arrested at the Annapolis State House © Aaron Davis, Washington Post]

I’ve included everything in order so that readers can see the trajectory of the conversation, but the best parts of the interview are at the end and if you don’t have much time I encourage you to check out the last few sections first.