The Virginian-Pilot
By Mike Tidwell
Imagine a teenager’s very messy room. Family members plead for a clean up. Finally, for a $10 “incentive” payment, the teen straightens up, declares compliance and dashes off to the 7-11 for $10 of snacks and soda. But sadly, family members enter the room only to find mounds of dirty dishes, soiled clothes and used tissues stuffed under the bed. A con job.
Now imagine that the room in question is Virginia’s historically polluted air and our over-reliance on dirty, unsustainable fossil fuels. Who’s the take-the-money-and-run offender in this case? Why, it’s Dominion Virginia Power.
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Saying "NO" to the tar sands
Commentary by Mike Tidwell
I went to the White House and got arrested last week because I don’t like hurricanes — and I really didn’t like Irene. The storm knocked out power to my Takoma Park home from Sunday to Monday and it took off the top of my chimney.
Going to jail for the environment
The Baltimore Sun
By Mike Tidwell and Dr. Cindy Parker
As you read this, two starkly different visions of Maryland’s energy future are clashing on a sidewalk outside the White House.
McDonnell's got wrong answers
The Richmond Times-Dispatch
In the face of high gas prices, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is right to say the commonwealth needs new offshore energy to power its ever-thirsty cars (May 5 Op/Ed, “America’s energy insecurity”). The only problem is McDonnell is talking about the wrong kind of energy for the wrong kind of cars. Pushing for dangerous offshore drilling just a few miles from Virginia Beach in 2011 is the technological equivalent of building canals during the early days of railroad. Or investing in manual typewriters in, say, 1985.
Pass the wind power bill
Commentary by Mike Tidwell
As a boy, I remember sitting in my family’s Ford Pinto in a four-hour long gas line during the Arab oil embargo of 1973. My dad told me then, with complete confidence, that oil would be a bad memory when I grew up. Our cars would run on something, he said, but not on this black liquid from countries that don’t like us.
Unions, enviros unite over wind power
The Gazette of Business and Politics
By Mike Tidwell and Jim Strong
Labor unions and environmental groups haven’t always seen eye to eye in Maryland. The state’s “green” leaders often have seemed more interested in trees than workers. And unions traditionally have focused more on short-term wages than long-term threats like global warming.
A climate change activist prepares for the worst
by Mike Tidwell
Ten years ago, I put solar panels on my roof and began eating locally grown food. I bought an energy-efficient refrigerator that uses the power equivalent of a single light bulb. I started heating my home with a stove that burns organically fertilized corn kernels. I even restored a gas-free lawn mower for manual yardwork.
A propitious wind
By Mike Tidwell
So you’re a lawmaker in Annapolis, with November’s election safely behind you. But the voices of working families and struggling consumers are still ringing in your ears: “We need help!” What’s a leader to do?
Maryland's answer to global warming
By Mike Tidwell
First came the snowfall last winter. It buried Baltimore in three massive storms, shattering all accumulation records going back 127 years. Then came the thunderstorms of July and August. They pummeled much of Maryland with extreme rain and 70 mile-per-hour winds, knocking out power to over half a million customers.
Bag tax: Local action, global import
The Washington Post
By Mike Tidwell
On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, what environmental legislation should we celebrate most? What bill has really stood tall for our fragile planet? The Endangered Species Act of 1973? The Clean Air Act of 1990? Or … the District of Columbia’s plastic bag tax of 2010?