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

When: Wednesday, August 24th, 12 noon
Who: Power Local Green Jobs Campaign

DOYLESTOWN- Quaker activists are demanding that PECO play a different tune on solar jobs at a Doylestown concert series sponsored by the company. They are part of the Power Local Green Jobs campaign, which is calling for the utility to build a green energy economy in our region, by bringing thousands of green jobs by buying more of its energy from solar panels installed on local roofs.

Over the past year, the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and the interfaith network Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower, and Rebuild (POWER) have met with PECO executives and led a dozen demonstrations in the region, outside the PECO building in Philadelphia, in Chester, and Upper Darby. They want PECO to secure 20% of the electricity it sells from local rooftop solar by 2025, with solar panels installed first in the communities hardest hit by unemployment.

Pennsylvania is far behind neighboring states in making the transition to solar and other renewable energy. New York state has committed to the much higher goal of 50% renewables by 2030.

The action is spreading from Philadelphia into surrounding counties, where many communities hope to see green investments. Last month in Chester, a group of high school students took action on a busy street corner, speaking to passersby about why solar jobs are needed. Then two weeks ago, activists gathered at a substation in Upper Darby to demand local solar jobs.

Earth Quaker Action Team includes Quakers and people of diverse beliefs using nonviolent direct action to build a just and sustainable economy. EQAT (pronounced “equate”) won its first campaign in 2015, forcing PNC Bank to halt millions of dollars of financing to companies engaged in mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. Following that success, EQAT’s new campaign is pressuring local utility PECO to Power Local Green Jobs through solar expansion, particularly in North Philadelphia.