PHILADELPHIA- About 40 walkers took the first steps of a 100 mile journey for justice outside of Morris Chapel Baptist Church this morning, after a blessing from 9 clergy leaders. In a group ranging from millennials to great-grandparents, the walkers began a circle through PECO’s service area, moving between dirty fossil fuel plants to sites where solar jobs could build a bright future. 

Things have not been the same at PECO’s Center City headquarters since the launch of the Power Local Green Jobs campaign in September 2015.  On more than a dozen occasions, members of EQAT (Earth Quaker Action Team) and POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild) have gathered in the company’s lobby and plaza with the message that it is not OK for less than 1% of the electricity that PECO sells to come from solar energy. 

PHILADELPHIA- Lining the walls of PECO’s lobby with electric candles and post-it notes, 45 Quaker and interfaith activists called for PECO to commit to connecting jobs-hungry communities to solar opportunities. Solar is one of the fastest growing industries in the country.

PHILADELPHIA- A hundred runners and walkers did laps around PECO’s Market Street headquarters on Saturday, October 1st, saying that PECO has been giving a “run-around” to delay a transition to solar energy and a major increase in green jobs. The protest continues the Power Local Green Jobs campaign for 20% local solar by 2025. 

PHILADELPHIA - Today, in response to a year-long campaign spearheaded by Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild (POWER), PECO announced a draft plan which advocates had hoped would create thousands of local solar jobs. Heartened by PECO taking a first step, the Power Local Green Jobs Campaign called for solar on a greater scale and a commitment to economic justice.

The second meeting of PECO’s Solar Stakeholder Collaborative will be later this month on September 21, and PECO is expected to announce initial plans. In an open letter to PECO CEO Craig Adams, the interfaith Power Local Green Jobs campaign reminds the company that what is needed is a shift to solar large enough to impact climate change and address the need for local jobs.

Press Advisory

What: Concert-goers decorate a colorful, 5 foot tall cardboard rowhouse with paper solar panels
Where: Bucks County Courthouse Lawn, 100 N Main St, Doylestown, PA

UPPER DARBY- Demanding that PECO support local solar jobs, about twenty Quaker activists raised their banners at a PECO substation in Upper Darby on Monday. They say the utility could build a green energy economy in our region, and bring thousands of green jobs by buying more of its energy from solar panels installed in local communities.

Singing gospel and labor-inspired songs, a hundred and fifty clergy, Quakers, youth, and seniors called for bold action on new solar jobs. This was the largest action yet in the Power Local Green Jobs Campaign, packing the plaza outside PECO Headquarters to announce a major expansion: demanding that PECO spur the creation of thousands of jobs in local high-unemployment areas by committing to get 20% of its electricity from rooftop solar by 2025.

Community pressure to increase at May 10 demonstration

PECO has failed to commit to purchase solar power from North Philadelphia roofs. Today marks the end of a May 2nd deadline set by community groups asking PECO to purchase 14.3 megawatts of solar from North Philadelphia.