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PRESIDENT Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in lowand middle-income communities. He also announced plans to expand his New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training programme.
The grants are being awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which unveiled the 60 recipients on April 22. The projects are expected to eventually reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million annually, according to senior administration officials.
Biden’s latest environmental announcements come as he is working to energise 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 around the country of the administration’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Senior administration officials said young Americans are keenly invested in the Biden climate agenda and want to actually help enact it. The Climate Corps initiative is a way for them to do that, the officials said.
Solar is gaining traction as a key renewable energy source that could reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, which emit planetwarming greenhouse gases. Not only is it clean, but solar energy can also boost the reliability of the electric grid.
But solar energy can have high costs for initial installation, making it inaccessible for many Americans— and potentially meaning a mingling of environmental policy with election-year politics.
Forty-nine of the new grants are state-level awards, six serve Native American tribes and five are multistate awards. They can be used for investments such as rooftop solar and community solar gardens.
