The Breakdown: Our Shoot in Mississippi
EDCO’s film crew just wrapped our first shoot in the state of Mississippi! In Mississippi, our team interviewed a wide range of inspiring leaders including inventors, activists, government officials, and more. Our shoot highlighted how money and power influence who gets a say in the electric grid, showed the brave steps community leaders are taking to demand a seat at the table, and uncovered how communities of color and rural communities are excluded from the decisions that shape our grid. Here are our 3 key takeaways:
1: Big corporations use their power to take advantage of small towns and marginalized communities. By highlighting how a toxic plant led to the devastation of a small town in rural Mississippi, we explored how the unequal relationships between multinational corporations and rural communities can turn predatory. By shining a light on these predatory practices, we hope to help level the playing field, and help communities develop healthy relationships with the industrial companies that employ residents.
2: Power companies are placing profit before people’s livelihoods. Part of our shoot in Mississippi covered the proposal and eventual failure of the Kemper County gasified coal plant project. Southern Company, the power provider for much of Mississippi, wanted residents to foot a 7 billion dollar bill for a power plant using unproven technology, knowing the financial impacts would be devastating (MS has the lowest per capita income in the country). Brave activists faced influential lobbyists and physical intimidation, and narrowly managed to convince the Public Service Commission to strike down the power plant, saving the state of Mississippi billions of dollars. By making their voices heard, they kept the lights on for poorer residents who may have had to choose between power and food, and proved the power of Energy Democracy.
3: Not everyone has an equal ability to fight back: rural towns and minority communities are disempowered and denied accountability. Although the fight to save Mississippi from paying for the failed Kemper County plant was an inspiring success, the same institutions that allowed for this success do not apply to all Mississippi residents. Outside of the Public Service Commission’s jurisdiction and oversight, rural electric cooperatives have engaged in voter suppression during their board elections, and racial discrimination and a wide variety of malfeasance. By sharing the stories of the community leaders fighting for a say in their cooperatives, we hope to shift the balance of power to favor communities regardless of their color, creed, and class.
