When consumers are cheated, or our natural environment is threatened, or when special interest lobbyists drown the voices of ordinary citizens out, PennPIRG speaks up and takes action. We uncover threats to the public health and well being and fight to end them, using the time-tested tools of investigative research, media exposes, grassroots organizing, advocacy and litigation. PennPIRG's mission is to deliver persistent, result-oriented public interest activism that protects our environment, encourages a fair, sustainable economy, and fosters responsive, democratic government. After more than a year of advocacy by PennPIRG's staff and other experts, the state passed new rules that require Pennsylvania's power plants to cut emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxide by 60 percent. PennPIRG's staff worked with local townships to help pass initiatives in the greater Philadelphia region that will save thousands of acres of open space from sprawling overdevelopment.
Sprawl consumes ten acres of open space every hour in Pennsylvania.
Following recommendations from PennPIRG's annual toy safety report, two major toy retailers agreed to give consumers more prominent warnings about potentially dangerous toys. Pennsylvania citizens and our environment are threatened by problems ranging from the destruction of wild species habitat due to urban sprawl to ever increasing bank fees. Currently, the Philadelphia area loses an acre of open space every hour due to urban sprawl. Pennsylvania also had the fifth highest number of clean air violations in the country last summer, and the state has 102 federal Superfund sites and 7 federally listed endangered species. On the consumer front, Pennsylvanians are faced with an increase in banking fees such as the ATM surcharge, and stores continue to sell toys that pose choking and other hazards to young children.