Let them eat cake. Or at least bake one using power from the sun.Promising ‘solar for all’, US president Joe Biden has ponied up USD$7 billion to convert nearly a million “disadvantaged” households with rooftop solar panels.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected 60 tribal governments, non-profits and municipalities under the administration’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction fund competition to hook up 900,000 low-income households in their communities.Included in the list are institutions like foster homes, halfway houses and public housing projects..In a news release, the EPA said the grants will “enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar, lowering energy costs for families, creating good-quality jobs in communities that have been left behind, advancing environmental justice and tackling climate change.”The program is estimated to generate 200,000 jobs, more than a third of which are unionized, and save $8 billion in electricity costs over the life of the program.It comes after Biden last month imposed restrictions on oil and gas lease sales in Alaska and announced the creation of the American Climate Corps., a youth volunteer organization modelled on Franklin roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.The group is aiming to recruit 20,000 young people and train them to install said solar panels, among others..The announcement itself was made in a park for underprivileged youth about 50 kilometres south of Washington DC that was created in 1936 under Roosevelt’s new Deal.The objective of the corps is “to make it easy for any American to find work tackling the climate crisis while gaining the skills necessary for the clean energy and climate resilience workforce of the future,” it said.Biden was flanked by the likes of New York representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders — one of the architects of Biden’s Inflation reduction Act — while making the announcement.“Climate change is real, climate change through drought, floods, forest fires, heatwaves and extreme weather disturbances is already causing massive devastation for our country and the entire world,” Sanders said.“If anyone tells you climate change is a hoax, have them talk to farmers whose crop production is dwindling, have them talk to firefighters who risk their lives fighting fires with more severity and size than we’ve ever seen.”Pundits said the moves are aimed at burnishing Biden’s green credentials to shore up support among the younger — and more radical — elements of his base.Biden has tried to draw a contrast with Republicans who have called for less regulation of oil production to lower energy prices. Biden officials counter that GOP policies “benefit highly profitable oil companies and could ultimately undermine U.S. efforts to compete with the Chinese in the renewable energy sector.”
