Green jobs campaign leaves message for energy trade group

ALLENTOWN, PA – The Power Local Green Jobs campaign infiltrated the conference room for a committee meeting of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania in Allentown today. The green jobs advocates planted flyers calling out the failures of PECO CEO Craig Adams, a board member of the lobbyist group, for neglecting to transition PECO to green, affordable energy.

The advocates added their demands to the handouts for statewide electric operators, denouncing PECO’s failure to clean up its electric power and, in the process, bring new jobs to Southeast Pennsylvania neighborhoods. The campaign calls for PECO to set a target of at least 20% local solar by 2025.

“Right now in Texas and Florida, we we see the devastation from intensified storms and floods. Many people don’t have the resources to rebuild or relocate. We commend PECO for immediately joining the emergency response efforts, but that’s not enough when Craig Adams has kept the company in the business of climate change for huge profits. This has to stop,” explained Walter Hjelt Sullivan, a volunteer.

PECO earns profits of over $1 million a day from ratepayers. Utilities in many states calculate the societal costs of their carbon pollution, but in Pennsylvania those costs are left to be paid by the public.

In the last two years, Power Local Green Jobs activists have staged dozens of actions at PECO headquarters and around its service territory. Last May, the activists walked 100 miles through the region, demanding solar jobs in high-unemployment areas. In response, PECO briefly convened solar conversations, but has not implemented any strategy for green jobs.

Power Local Green Jobs is a faith-based economic justice campaign led by Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) and Philadelphians Organized to Witness Empower and Rebuild (POWER). Begun in 2015, the campaign uses nonviolent direct action to pressure PECO, the largest utility in PA, to spur job growth through solar expansion in areas with high unemployment. Learn more at www.powerinterfaith.org and www.eqat.org.