President Joe Biden commemorated Earth Day 2024 by reiterating his pledge to fight climate change and promote new green energy technologies.
The president was joined on Monday by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), all three progressives and some of the loudest voices in Congress focusing on green energy. Heading into a tight 2024 election against former President Donald Trump, Biden has seen support among young voters dip not only due to his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza but also due to an apparent failure to deliver on other progressive policy promises he made on the 2020 campaign trail, including those on climate.
“This president is overseeing the single biggest federal investment in tackling the climate crisis in our nation’s history,” Ocasio-Cortez said ahead of Biden’s remarks.
The president delivered his speech at the Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia, where he unveiled $7 billion in new grants for solar projects and urged young people to sign up for the American Climate Corps, a new program aimed at training enrollees for future work in climate and green energy jobs.
“You know, I learned a long time ago to listen to that lady,” Biden said, referencing Ocasio-Cortez, the author of the progressive climate wish list known as the Green New Deal. “Today’s announcement builds upon an unprecedented historic action we’ve already taken to tackle the climate crisis, to live environmental justice, and build a clean energy future.”
The president additionally attacked his “Republican friends” and others “who deny the climate is in crisis.”
“I’m not making it up. It’s real. Just listen to what they say,” he said. “Anyone in or out of government who willfully denies the impacts of climate change is condemning the American people to a very dangerous future and the world, I might add. They want to take us backwards, sideline our workers, let China and others lead the race for clean energy. I’m determined, absolutely determined, we move forward.”
The new grants are funded under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, and White House officials estimate they will create 200,000 new jobs across the country in addition to saving America’s households an average of $400 per year.
“We’re opening up a market where everybody, no matter their ZIP code or their economic background, can tap into the savings opportunity that clean energy represents,” a senior administration official told reporters ahead of the president’s remarks.
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You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.
