TRIANGLE — President Joe Biden on Monday celebrated the 54th anniversary of Earth Day with a return trip to Prince William County, announcing a $7 billion investment to help low- and middle-income families buy solar panels for their homes.
The investment includes more than $156 million in grants for Virginia.
A trio of progressive Democratic leaders — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. — joined Biden in a ringing commitment for the U.S. to lead the fight against climate change.
Biden, surrounded by a canopy of green on a sun-splashed April afternoon, spoke from a stage at Prince William Forest Park, which the Civilian Conservation Corps built during President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration. Biden also announced 2,000 positions for young Americans to learn skills in clean energy trades through the American Climate Corps.
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The president gave no ground to Republican critics who question whether climate change is real and who seek to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act he signed nearly two years ago with an unprecedented amount of federal money to promote clean energy technologies.
“Anyone in or out of government who willfully denies the impacts of climate change is condemning the American people to a very dangerous future — and the world, I might add,” Biden said. “They want to take us backwards, sideline our workers, let China and others lead the race for clean energy.
“I’m determined — absolutely determined — that we move forward.”
As the president faces an election rematch against former President Donald Trump in November, he is trying to rally young voters around his campaign on the issue of climate change. A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago found that most voters do not know about the law and say they have not seen its benefit.
Don’t sell Biden short, says Amanda Whiteman, an Arlington County resident whom the White House invited to the Earth Day event with her two children and another friend. The three children co-founded the GreenPromise Club four years ago to express their concern about climate change.
“We actually understand he’s done quite a lot for (combating) climate change,” Whiteman said.
Her 13-year-old daughter, Charlie, said she wrote to the president to urge him to “make climate change his number one priority.” Biden responded with a letter assuring her that he’s doing everything he can.
“If the world overheats, then everything else won’t matter,” said Charlie, wearing a GreenPromise T-shirt that her 10-year-old brother, Theo, designed for the event after learning last week that the White House had invited them.
They were joined by 11-year-old Jaya Blaser, a founding member of the club, which has produced its own podcast and created a website (greenpromise.godaddysites.com) to advocate for the environment in the face of the climate threat.
The $7 billion in grants are through the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Solar for All” grant competition, part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
The White House said recipients nationwide will deliver residential solar power to more than 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities, “saving overburdened households more than $350 million in electricity costs annually” — which it said comes out to about $400 per household. The White House projected that this will avoid more than 30 million metric tons of carbon pollution over the next 25 years and that solar projects funded by this program will create nearly 200,000 jobs.
Sanders, who introduced the original “Solar for All” legislation, said, “Families who in the past have not been able to take advantage of solar panels will now be able to do so.”
Michael Town, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, credited Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s energy office for procuring the grant, but said the governor “has the opportunity to make the money go farther” by signing legislation approved by the General Assembly to create the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank. The assembly included $10 million in the pending state budget for the so-called “green bank” to leverage up to $310 million in federal loans for clean energy technology.
Youngkin amended Senate Bill 729, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, to require approval by the legislature again next year before it can become law. The assembly rejected the governor’s amendment last week, but he still has the choice to either veto or sign the measure into law.
“We don’t want to leave money on the table,” Town said.
Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, introduced the same bill, but it died in a House of Delegates committee. Lopez, who attended the Earth Day event with other state legislators, called it “short-sighted and wrongheaded” to block the bill.
“We’re leaving ourselves empty-handed. The money is available now,” he said. “You have to have some skin in the game.”
The event provided further proof that Biden isn’t taking Virginia for granted in the presidential election, in which he defeated Trump by 10 percentage points in 2020. And neither is Trump.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off their general election campaign with a January rally in Prince William focused on abortion rights. Trump held a March 2 rally at the Greater Richmond Convention Center shortly before he and Biden easily captured Virginia on Super Tuesday.
For Biden, Earth Day provided an opportunity to prove his commitment to fighting climate change and other environmental causes — with a little help from his friends.
The presence of Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Markey could give Biden a much-needed boost among young voters, many of whom are unhappy with the president’s policy in support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Markey, a longtime proponent of creating the American Climate Corps, partnered with Ocasio-Cortez to enlist young people in learning clean energy trade skills, with training from the North American Building Trades Unions.
He called Biden “the greatest climate change president” and expressed faith that young people will recognize he’s on their side in the climate fight.
“The young people are not giving up,” Markey said. “They’re not backing down.”