PECO’s Deadline: Delivered
On Wednesday, seven Earth Quakers met at 30th street ready to deliver a direct statement to PECO and launch our spring strategy arc. Our task was to deliver EQAT’s ultimatum:
This spring, PECO must choose where to purchase its 2016 required solar increase. If it does not choose North Philadelphia, bringing solar jobs to a high-unemployment community, EQAT will blow the whistle on PECO with non-violent direct action, exposing the fact that it is not the community leader it claims to be.
With guidance from other EQATers, the February core team was encouraged to make delivering this message to PECO the primary task of our action Wednesday, so turning out other participants was not a goal. Eager, excited, and a little lonely, the seven of us walked forth from 30th street ready to deliver the message that frees us to build through the Spring.
All in all, delivering the ultimatum Wednesday only took 15 minutes—we walked over from 30th Street with our ultimatum banner, and filmed Eileen speaking about our deadline in front of the PECO sign. The February core team had spent days researching PECO and Exelon executives and coordinated our brief statement outside Wednesday with a mass mailing of certified letters to PECO CEO Craig Adams, senior executives of PECO, and board members of PECO’s parent company Exelon, specifying a deadline of May 2, 2016 for PECO to announce a plan to buy its solar increase from North Philadelphia. A barrage of faxes was also sent.
Our task was to make sure PECO got our message and our deadline, and I’m confident that we did that. When the core team took time to reflect when all was said and done, our feeling was clear— we’re ready to hold PECO to our deadline and we are excited for escalating action to make sure they hear us.
