Whether or not it’s an environmentally unfriendly use of plastic, activists just might cordon off as a crime scene the energy giant’s downtown headquarters, as the Columbus site for Occupy the Corporations. That's a national day of action on Sat. Jan 21, a day after organizers here carry out the Columbus contingent of Occupy the Courts by protesting against corporate personhood at the federal courthouse at Long and Marconi. Yellow tape or not, organizers here, such as Tom McNabb, have their sites set on AEP.

“Their corruption (involves) repeated violations of environmental protection laws (as well as ) spending money they get from tax rebates from us as citizens, on lobbying legislators to cut the legs out from under the rules of the fixes they’ve agreed to.”

McNabb said those fixes were supposed to make AEP’s operations run cleaner. He said the power company is trying to delay following thru with agreements made with regulators.

“They’ve got plants that are not operating according to the clean air standards that they’ve agreed to. They continue to fight both the fines and the regulations and the agreements they’ve made to bring those operating facilities up to spec.”

A perhaps different version of the story : Reuters

In a settlement with the U.S. EPA in 2007, AEP agreed to cut 813,000 tons of air pollutants annually, at an estimated cost of more than $4.6 billion.

EPA

But McNabb said AEP has not followed thru.

"They are attempting to buy our legislators, to extend the deadlines on making those infrastructure commitments or not have to comply with them at all.”

McNabb said AEP had to buy an entire town in Ohio because the pollution made it uninhabitable.

Cheshire Transaction

Forgotten Ohio

The focus on AEP for Occupy the Corporations is an example of how activists in Columbus and in cities around the country are combining environmental activism with fighting for what they see as economic justice.

“They’ve laid off 2,600 workers between the years 2008 and 2010 . At the time, their top executives were getting a bonus package split between the five of them, of $23.7 million. They (AEP) do not pay taxes. They got a $545 million tax rebate, and yet they’re making $5.9 billion in profits.” For taxes, layoffs, CEO compensation, profits, lobbying, and other data on AEP:

Source Watch

McNabb said AEP has the money to make the infrastructure upgrades in their agreements with regulators, but they’d rather spend it on lobbying to get out of them.