Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal solar power grants
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden marks Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving more than 900,000 households in low- and middle-income communities. He also plans to expand his New Deal-style U.S. Climate Corps green jobs training program.
The grants are awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which announced the 60 recipients on Monday. The projects are expected to ultimately reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million annually, senior government officials said.
Biden’s latest environmental announcements come as he works to energize young voters for his reelection campaign. Young people were a key part of a broad but potentially fragile coalition that helped him defeat then-President Donald Trump in 2020. Some have joined protests across the country against the government’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Senior administration officials said young Americans care deeply about Biden’s climate agenda and want to actually help implement it. The Climate Corps initiative is a way for them to do that, officials said.
Solar energy is gaining ground as an important renewable energy source that could reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gases that warm the planet. Not only is it clean, but solar energy can also increase the reliability of the electrical grid.
But solar energy can come at a high cost for initial installation, making it inaccessible to many Americans — and potentially mixing environmental policy with electoral politics.
Forty-nine of the new grants are state-level awards, six serve Native American tribes and five are multi-state awards. They can be used for investments such as rooftop solar and community solar gardens.
Biden makes the announcement at Prince William Forest Park in northern Virginia, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Washington. It was founded in 1936 as a summer camp for underprivileged Washington youth, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps to help create jobs during the Great Depression.
Biden used executive action last year to create the U.S. Climate Corps, modeled on Roosevelt’s New Deal. He announced Monday that nearly 2,000 corps positions will be offered in 36 states, including positions offered in partnership with the North American Building Trades Unions.
Biden has often used Earth Day as a backdrop to promote his administration’s climate initiatives. Last year, he signed an executive order establishing the White House Office of Environmental Justice, intended to ensure that poverty, race and ethnic status do not lead to greater exposure to pollution and environmental damage.
He has sought to draw a contrast with Republican congressional leaders, who have called for less regulation of oil production to lower energy prices. Biden officials counter that the GOP policies benefit highly profitable oil companies and could ultimately undermine U.S. efforts to compete with the Chinese in the renewable energy sector.
Biden will use his visit to Virginia to discuss how “a climate crisis that is fully manifesting itself for the American people in communities across the country is also an opportunity for us to come together,” said Ali Zaidi, White House national climate adviser House.
He said the programs can “unlock economic opportunities to create pathways to careers that support the middle class, save people money and improve their quality of life.”
The awards came from the Solar for All program, part of the $27 billion “green bank” created as part of a sweeping climate law passed in 2022. The bank is intended to reduce climate and air pollution and send money to the neighborhoods that are most in need. especially underserved and low-income communities that are disproportionately affected by climate change.
EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe said she “looks forward to these funds getting out into the community, giving people skills, putting them to work in their local communities, and allowing people to save on their utility bills so they can use those dollars can spend on other needs.”
Among those receiving grants are state projects to provide solar-equipped roofs for homes, college housing and residential community solar projects in West Virginia, a nonprofit operating Mississippi solar leasing program and workforce training initiatives at the field of solar energy in South Carolina.
The taxpayer-funded green bank has faced Republican opposition and concerns about responsibility for how the money is used. EPA previously disbursed the remaining $20 billion of the bank’s money to nonprofits and community development banks for clean energy projects such as residential heat pumps, additional energy-efficient home improvements and larger-scale projects such as electric vehicle charging stations and community cooling centers.
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St. John reported from Detroit.
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Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate solutions reporter. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.
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