President Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities while visiting Prince William Forest Park in Virginia on Monday to mark Earth Day.
The White House also plans to also expand Biden’s New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program, saying that it hopes its ‘Solar for All’ grants will help more than 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities get solar power. It said solar power could save about $400 per household in electricity costs and prevent 30 million metric tons of carbon pollution over 25 years.
The grants are being awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which unveiled the 60 recipients on Monday. The White House said: “the selectees will provide funds to states, territories, tribes, municipalities, and nonprofits across the country to develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar.”
2,000 jobs were revealed as ‘just the beginning’ of what is expected to be about 20,000 positions that will be available for young people to get involved in conservation, renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure to address climate change. The White House said: “These positions are hosted by hundreds of organizations advancing clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience. The website, which is launching in beta form, will be regularly updated with new American Climate Corps positions. Its goal is to make it easy for any American to find work tackling the climate crisis while gaining the skills necessary for the clean energy and climate resilience workforce of the future.”. According to the White House, the jobs on ClimateCorps.gov will be located in 36 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
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