President Biden highlighted his administration’s environmental work on Earth Day, such as creating a Civilian Climate Corps and a $7 billion program called “Solar for All” to make rooftop solar power more accessible.
Biden said on Monday in Triangle, Va. that the effects of climate change, which have been building up for decades due to lack of action, will become more frequent, fierce, and expensive.
The president countered the idea that we have to choose between fighting climate change and creating jobs. He mentioned the job opportunities from the Climate Corps and the partnership with North America’s Building Trades Unions. He also talked about rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, setting the first limits on forever chemicals in drinking water, and proposing a ban on asbestos. The first limits on so-called forever chemicals in drinking water and its proposals to ban asbestos.
“It’s all part of a plan to reassert America’s climate leadership,” Biden said.
Lawmakers from the progressive and climate-focused factions of the Democratic Party were with Biden.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who strongly supports the Solar for All program, praised the administration and criticized those who call climate change a “hoax.” He mentioned the negative impacts of climate change on farmers, firefighters, and homeowners, and emphasized the benefits of the Solar for All program.
Sanders added, “The Solar for All program is spending $7 billion, saving more than $8.7 billion, reducing carbon emissions, and creating jobs — that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.”
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who together presented the original Green New Deal resolution in 2019, were also there. Markey called Biden the “greatest climate champion president in the history of the United States,” and Ocasio-Cortez praised the administration’s climate policies as a victory over skepticism about progressive and environmental activism.
Ocasio-Cortez said, “People said then it was impossible, and to that we said, ‘Watch us work.’ It was the power of young people who have made today possible.”
The New York congresswoman specifically highlighted a number of recent climate actions the administration has taken, including a temporary pause on new exports of liquefied natural gas and barring oil drilling on large sections of federal lands in the Arctic.
The administration has faced criticism from younger, more progressive, and climate-focused voters for resuming leasing of federal lands for drilling and approving a large Alaskan drilling project early in Biden’s term. However, it has tried to emphasize actions like the ones Ocasio-Cortez mentioned before the 2024 presidential election.
President Biden acknowledged Earth Day by praising his administration's environmental initiatives, such as a Civilian Climate Corps and a $7 billion 'Solar for All' initiative to increase access to rooftop solar power. 'The effects you're witnessing, which have been developing for decades due to lack of action, will only become more frequent, intense, and expensive,' Biden stated on Monday…
