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Top Democrats, from former President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), hailed the creation of the American Climate Corps, a program offering training to more than 20,000 primarily young people that will help them fight climate change and make the US more environment-friendly.
President Joe Biden announced the initiative on Wednesday, and the White House stressed that it would not only benefit the environment but also put young people on the path toward well-paying jobs.
The American Climate Corps is supposed to put a new generation of Americans to work on “conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice, all while creating pathways to high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience jobs in the public and private sectors after they complete their paid training program,” the White House stated.
While the initiative was originally included in the Inflation Reduction Act, it was stripped out in negotiations prior to its passage.
Since then, progressive Democrats and environmental groups had called on Biden to launch the program using his executive authority. On Wednesday, they praised him for coming through.
Ocasio-Cortez called the creation of the initiative a “major victory.”
“In 2021, we proposed the Climate Corps and launched a massive inside-outside organizing effort to win it,” she said on Twitter. “Today, the American Climate Corps has finally come true. Thank you to [Biden] and the countless communities and organizers who made this a reality.”
Obama also gave credit to “the organizing efforts of young people across the country.” Climate change is one of the top priorities for young voters who face an uncertain future as temperatures in the US and the world go up and result in devastating catastrophes.
Just last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the United States has already been hit by a record 23 separate billion-dollar disasters this year, many of which were made worse by the changing climate.
Now, the American Climate Corps will allow young people to do something about it that goes beyond protesting.
“The creation of the American Climate Corps will mobilize young people who care so deeply about the future of our planet and who are ready to take on the existential threat of climate change,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
A part of the appeal of the program, and perhaps the reason why it received scant criticism from Republicans, is that it is not “just” a green initiative but also one that will, in theory, result in the training of skilled workers.
For example, the transition to a more environment-friendly economy will require a lot of electricians who can install solar panels, wind turbines, or heat pumps.
In the absence of a federal program, a handful of states had already set up their own initiatives, and the White House said five others would do so now.
It is important to note that not all of them are blue states. For example, the list includes Utah, which is controlled by Republicans, as well as a couple of states, North Carolina and Arizona, that have Democratic governors but GOP-led legislatures.
