President Biden marked Earth Day by highlighting his administration’s environmental achievements, including the Civilian Climate Corps and the $7 billion “Solar for All” program, which aims to expand access to rooftop solar power.
Speaking in Triangle, Virginia, on Monday, Biden emphasized the urgent need for climate action, stating, “The impacts you’re seeing, decades in the making due to inaction, will only become more frequent, ferocious, and costly.”
Biden pushed back against the notion that addressing climate change comes at the expense of jobs, pointing to the Climate Corps and its partnership with North America’s Building Trades Unions as examples of job creation in the clean energy sector.
Earth Day 2024: Celebrating Our Planet (Credits: news.faharas.net)
He also touted his administration’s environmental accomplishments, including rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, imposing limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water, and proposing a ban on asbestos.
Joining Biden were lawmakers from the progressive and climate-focused wings of the Democratic Party, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who praised the “Solar for All” program and criticized those who deny the reality of climate change.
Sanders emphasized the program’s benefits, stating, “We’re spending $7 billion to save over $8.7 billion, reducing carbon emissions, and creating jobs – that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.”
Also present were Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), co-sponsors of the original Green New Deal resolution. Markey hailed Biden as the “greatest climate champion president in U.S. history,” while Ocasio-Cortez celebrated the administration’s climate policies as a triumph over cynicism about progressive and environmental activism.
President Joe Biden (Credits: The Hill)
She highlighted recent climate actions, including a temporary pause on new liquefied natural gas exports and the barring of oil drilling on large sections of federal lands in the Arctic.
While the administration has taken steps to address climate change, it has also faced criticism from younger, more progressive voters for resuming federal land leasing for drilling and approving a massive Alaskan drilling project earlier in Biden’s term. Nevertheless, the administration has sought to emphasize its climate actions ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
