Joe Biden dispersed $7 billion in federal grants to be used for solar projects around the nation
United States President, Joe Biden put his mark on this year’s Earth’s Day by declaring $7 billion in federal grants that will be used for solar-projects that will serve over 900,000 households in low or middle-income areas.
With the presidential election looming later this year, Biden not only hopes to help Americans and the environment by switching over to renewable resources, but wants to display his climate activism to his voters.
In his speech on Monday in Virginia, Biden emphasized the importance of using his position to help the environment and attacked the right side for not holding these standards.
“My MAGA Republican friends don’t seem to think it’s a crisis,” Biden said. “They actually want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides the funding for the vast majority of these projects, and roll back protections for clean air and clean water.”
With this the Biden Administration hopes to gain traction from young voters, since the majority have expressed their concern in the environment and climate change. According to the Wall Street Journal, 69% of Gen Z and 73% of millennials stated that they are making efforts to reduce their negative impact on the environment.
The solar grants are being given out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which revealed its 60 recipients. The sum of the projects is expected to reduce emissions 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. On top of the environmental benefit, the solar panels will save the collective household $350 million annually.
The popularity of solar power has been increasing as a solution to the problem of nonrenewable energy sources and could immensely help the nation’s dependence on them. Solar power is clean and can even boost the state of the electric grid.
While solat energy can be on the expensive side for installation, it can overtime save money by not having to use fossil fuels. 49 of the 60 grants are at the state level, six were gifted to Native American tribes and five were multi-state. The grants can go to things like powering buildings from rooftops or solar community gardens.
The awards came from the Solar for All program, which was part of the climate law passed in 2022 with the goal to reduce climate and air pollution while sending money to low-income neighborhoods who are affected heavily by climate change.
“Broad community-based solar is our brightest hope for protecting people and our climate from the scourge of fossil fuels,” director of the Energy Justice program at the Center for Biological Diversity, Jean Su said.
