$7B in Solar Power Grants Unveiled on Earth Day

President Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities. He also plans to expand his New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program. The grants are being awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which unveiled the 60 recipients on Monday, the AP reports. 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.

• 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 neighborhoods most in need, especially disadvantaged and low-income communities disproportionately impacted by climate change.

• Biden is making the announcement at northern Virginia's Prince William Forest Park, about 30 miles southwest of Washington. It was established in 1936 as a summer camp for underprivileged youth from Washington, 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 American Climate Corps modeled on Roosevelt's New Deal. He is announcing Monday that nearly 2,000 corps positions are being offered across 36 states, including jobs offered in partnership with the North American Building Trades Unions.
• Biden's latest environmental announcements come as he is working 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 around the country of the administration's handling of Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

(More Earth Day stories.)