By Ed, IBEW Local 712

I grew up in western Pennsylvania, where the old mills still cast a long shadow. After college, I started my apprenticeship, and I’ve spent three decades helping people build a life here. In that time, I’ve learned something simple and stubborn about my neighbors: we want a future at home. That’s why so many of us want solar.

I don’t say that as a slogan. I say it as someone who spends his days in union halls, on back roads, and in bleachers on Friday nights, listening. People here are practical. We know what happens when opportunity dries up: storefronts go empty, kids feel like they need to leave, and the stories we tell about our towns start to sound like the past tense. Solar is one way we turn that around. It’s a chance to say yes to something that fits who we are and where we’re headed.

When I drive past the ground-mount array in Hookstown or the solar out by the Pittsburgh airport, I feel the kind of pride you want your kids to see. Not because a headline told us to feel it, but because it sits on our landscape, powers our region, and gives people a reason to believe there’s still a path forward right here. You can point to it and say, “That’s ours.”

I’ve also seen what happens when good projects get drowned out by noise and half-truths. We lose more than construction timelines; we lose momentum, belief, and the sense that our communities can still choose progress on our own terms. That’s why I keep telling people: support for solar grows from the inside out. It starts with honest conversations, straight answers, and respect for the places we call home. When folks are treated like partners, they show up.

Most days, my proof is small and steady. An apprentice who tells me he wants to raise a family here. A retiree who says she’s proud to see something new being built where nothing stood for years. A neighbor who used to say “maybe someday” now saying “why not here, why not now?” None of that makes a splash online. But it’s how consent gets built in real towns, with quiet support that turns into a roomful of nods when a project comes up at a meeting.

I don’t pretend solar is the only answer. Around here, we’ve powered this country in a lot of ways and we’ll keep doing it. But I know what I see: growing demand for electricity, communities that want to keep their young people close, and a hunger for work that feels like purpose. Solar helps with that. It adds to what we’ve built, keeps dollars circulating locally, and gives people a reason to believe that the next chapter belongs to us—not to somebody far away.

If you’re wondering whether people here want solar, listen the way I do. Listen between the headlines. You’ll hear the same thing I hear in Beaver County and beyond: we’re ready for good projects that fit our towns and our way of life. We want a future at home.