For the next five months, EQAT and the Philly network will be using creative actions and social media to highlight the harm Vanguard investments are doing in our region and beyond.

A new campaign is a time of change, and that applies to our staff. As EQAT says goodbye to Tab Skervin as staff, we welcome Eileen Flanagan to a new role.

Last Friday, as people in 26 countries across the globe took action targeting banks, insurers, and investors, we showed up at Vanguard’s headquarters to tell the company, “Defund climate chaos!” 

Last month, we announced that EQAT will be joining the Vanguard's Very Big Problem Campaign - an international effort led by various activists and organizers around the world, all demanding that Vanguard divests from climate chaos.

We recently announced that EQAT's new focus is the Vanguard's Very Big Problem campaign. We've been excited by the enthusiastic response, including from Vanguard customers eager to move their money to funds that are not financing climate catastrophe. That’s great! And the impact of that action will be much greater if we lay some groundwork first before taking action together.

As rebels and campaigners for climate justice, EQAT set out to call PECO into action on the climate crisis. For the past six years, we’ve been pushing PECO to invest in our communities through local solar and green jobs. Because of our bold vision and actions, PECO has taken significant steps that have boosted the local solar economy and put some investment in job creation for black and brown community members. Even though these steps are incremental to the bigger vision we believe PECO can hold, it’s clear that the Power Local Green Jobs Campaign has gotten PECO moving. 

Last month, EQATers came together to organize our neighbors in Norristown, PA to speak truth to power. This was our second action around PECO’s proposal to increase rates by 10% for our region - a decision that would overwhelm our low-income neighbors who have been hit with economic hardship from the pandemic and who feel the burden of both a changing climate and fossil fuel extraction.

On July 20 I was eager to join EQAT members in another “Stop the PECO rate hike!” action. This one was in Norristown—not on the sidewalk outside PECO headquarters—and the goal was to inform folks about the 10% increase in rates PECO was requesting.

We are all future ancestors. Whether or not we have children, what we do now will have profound effects on so many people for generations to come. That’s why we were honored to be joined by the 2021 Walk for Our Grandchildren and Mother Earth, a weeklong march of grandparents from Scranton, PA to Wilmington, DE who stopped at dirty energy sites and fossil fuel funders throughout the march route to support local groups fighting for a livable world, now and for future generations.

One day in early June, we gathered outside of City Hall, with live music around the corner and the warm sun shining. Many of us were excited to be there, taking action in person for the first time in far too long. We were there to oppose an outrageous move by PECO -- a request to raise electrical rates by almost 10%, as many families continue to struggle with economic effects of the pandemic and as utility costs drive them deeper into debt.