Nearly 1 million U.S. families will receive funds for solar panels
President Biden announced $7 billion in grants for solar-powered housing projects that will provide electricity to nearly one million low-income households.
The announcement kicked off a week of events aimed at publicizing the administration’s accomplishments in the fight against climate change.
Biden made the announcement while speaking at Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia.
The president also announced the launch of applications for the U.S. Climate Corps, a program to prepare young people for jobs in climate-related industries.
Young voters, who tend to be more concerned about climate change, represent a key constituency for Joe Biden, who is set to rival Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The $7 billion in solar funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All grant competition was included in the Inflation Reduction Act passed under Joe Biden.
According to the White House, the funding for rooftop solar panels will create 200,000 jobs and save participating households about $400 a year.
“The Solar for All program will give us all clean air and real respite,” Biden said, noting that low-income families now spend up to 30 percent of what they earn on electricity.
The grant recipients include 60 state and local agencies and nonprofits with programs that help residents in poor neighborhoods go solar and save money on their energy bills.
The winners included several organizations planning to bring solar electricity to Native American communities in states such as Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.
Domestic solar power has long been considered difficult for low-income Americans to access because of the high initial investment, and also because less affluent people tend to rent or live in apartment buildings.
The program is consistent with Biden’s goal of directing 40 percent of federal clean energy investments to benefit low-income .
Biden’s American Climate Corps will launch a website – ClimateCorps.gov – where applicants can find 2,000 open positions in 36 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
The program’s first class will begin in June. Climate Corps aims to employ more than 20,000 young people by training them to install solar panels, use LiDAR cameras that detect methane emissions and restore mangrove forests and ecosystems, the White House said.
Biden said program participants will have access to educational programs through partnerships with North American construction unions. They will also be recruited by federal organizations through a streamlined process.
“I am putting tens of thousands of young people to work at the vanguard of our future development: climate resilience and clean energy,” Biden emphasized.
Biden’s presidential rival also held an Earth Day event on Monday. Independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. spoke about the need for public oversight of environmental protection.
It came during a virtual campaign event when Nicole Shanahan was announced as Kennedy Jr.’s vice presidential candidate in late March.
Last week, environmental organizations, including the National Resources Defense Council Action Fund and the Sierra Club, released an open letter calling Kennedy “a dangerous conspiracy theorist and science denier whose agenda could be a disaster for society and the planet.”