Hundreds turn out for PennEnvironment’s annual virtual citizen lobby day

“It’s all about being good stewards of our planet. Our efforts will benefit future generations who will otherwise wonder why we didn’t do what was needed to control climate change.” – Dave from Erie.

With Congress rolling back numerous federal clean energy programs, more than 300 Pennsylvanians joined PennEnvironment’s  annual virtual citizen lobby day for climate action on June 5th. Over the course of the day, participants joined 65 meetings with Pennsylvania state senators, state representatives and their staff–nearly one-quarter of the entire state legislature- all in one day! 

In these meetings, PennEnvironment staff and the concerned constituents who joined in were asking legislators to add their names as cosponsors to a set of priority renewable energy and energy conservation legislation. The meetings achieved their intended goal: by the time that the dust settled on the last meeting for the day, we helped convince 39 legislators to become new cosponsors to critical clean energy legislation pending in the general assembly.

To learn more about the specific policies that participants advocated for, check out our blog post on Gov. Shapiro’s Clean Energy Lightning Plan.

Part of the day’s activities included a virtual rally where lobby day attendees heard from a set of keynote speakers. This included the Secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, Jessica Shirley, as well as State Senator Judy Schwank, from Reading, Pennsylvania

Volunteers join PennEnvironment 2025 Climate Action Lobby Day Virtual RallyPhoto by TPIN | TPIN

PennEnvironment’s lobby day was cosponsored by a wide coalition of groups, including: PennPIRG, Sierra Club PA, POWER Interfaith, Vote Solar Action Fund, Third Act PA, Clean Air Action Fund, Audubon Mid-Atlantic, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in PA, PA-IPL, Solar United Neighbors, KEEA, Evergreen, and more.

PennEnvironment received positive and excited feedback from our lobby day attendees including: 

“It was great to have a virtual meeting with our legislators–enabled those of us who can’t easily get to Harrisburg to meet with them.” -Jo from Penn Valley

“I enjoyed Meeting with elected officials and meeting neighbors” -Lisa in Philly 

“It was eye-opening to hear a senator’s staffer thank the PennEnvironment facilitator for giving information the staffer hadn’t been aware of.” -Raymond from Media

“Much impressed by the complexity of the legislative process, but you are all on top of everything, and so, I am happy to say, are my legislators and their staff members. Also, the noon rally speakers were excellent. – Susan from Philly

Now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get some of these proposals over the finish line! 

So if you weren’t able to join us, but still want to have your voice heard on the policies on which we were lobbying, you can sign our clean energy petition!

Looking forward to seeing you at PennEnvironment’s 2026 citizen climate lobby day next year!