Who gets jailed for climate crimes?
by Emily Atkin and Arielle Samuelson, Heated
We can learn a lot about a society from who it chooses to jail during a planetary emergency, and who it allows to walk free.
Take, for example, some of the people who have been recently arrested for protesting environmental injustice—and compare them to the people who haven’t been arrested in one of the most egregious anti-climate corruption cases of the decade.
Last month, Ohio’s former Speaker of the House Larry Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison for accepting $61 million in bribes from the electric utility FirstEnergy in exchange for passing HB6, one of the worst anti-climate laws in the nation.
Charles Jones, FirstEnergy’s former CEO, was revealed to be the architect of the plan when lawyers for FirstEnergy said Jones and a colleague “devised and orchestrated FirstEnergy’s payments to public officials in exchange for favorable legislation and regulatory action.” Jones hasn’t been charged with any crimes.
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