New actions to accelerate clean energy, create jobs and reduce costs
Today, President Biden will reiterate that climate change is a clear and current danger to the United States. Because Congress is not acting in this emergency, President Biden will. In the coming weeks, President Biden will announce additional executive actions to combat this emergency.
Today, President Biden announces his latest set of executive actions to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, creating well-paid jobs in clean energy and reducing costs for families. Its actions will protect communities from the climate impacts that are already here, including extreme heat conditions affecting more than 100 million Americans this week, and expand opportunities and offshore wind jobs in the United States.
The president will make the announcements at a former coal-fired power plant in Brayton Point, Massachusetts, that will house a cable manufacturing facility to support Florida’s thriving offshore wind industry, which represents how the president’s leadership is accelerating the transition of the nation away from pollution, the environment. injustice and volatile changes in past prices towards well-paid jobs and the energy security of the future.
President Biden’s new executive actions will be:
- Protect communities from extreme heat and dangerous climate impacts: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announces $ 2.3 billion in funding for its Resilient Infrastructure and Community Building (BRIC) program for the fiscal year 2022, the largest BRIC investment in history, driven by the president’s bipartisan infrastructure law. This funding will help communities increase resilience to heat waves, drought, wildfires, floods, hurricanes and other hazards in preparation for disasters. BRIC is among the hundreds of federal programs that the Biden-Harris Administration is transforming to support the Justice40 Initiative and prioritize the provision of benefits to disadvantaged communities.
- Lower cooling costs for communities suffering from extreme heat: Today, the Department of Health and Human Services publishes a guide that, for the first time, expands as the Home Energy Assistance Program Revenue (LIHEAP) can promote the delivery of efficient, community air conditioning equipment. cooling centers and more. In April, the Biden-Harris Administration released $ 385 million through LIHEAP to help families with household energy costs, including summer cooling, part of a record $ 8 billion which the Administration has provided, driven by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
- Expanding offshore wind opportunities and jobs: The Department of the Interior is proposing the first wind power areas in the Gulf of Mexico, a historic step toward expanding offshore wind opportunities to another region of the United States. United States. These areas cover 700,000 acres and have the potential to feed more than three million homes. President Biden also directs the Secretary of the Interior to advance the development of wind power in the waters of the mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic coasts and the Florida Gulf Coast, alleviating the uncertainty issued by the previous administration. . These actions follow the launch by the president of a new partnership for the implementation of federal and state offshore wind that brought governors together to provide more clean, affordable energy and new jobs.
Millions of Americans feel the effects of climate change every year when their roads are cleared, electricity is turned off, homes are destroyed by forest fires or schools are flooded. Last year alone, the United States faced 20 extreme weather and climate-related disasters with losses in excess of $ 1 billion each, a cumulative price of more than $ 145 billion. People of color and neglected communities are disproportionately vulnerable to the climate crisis and are more likely to suffer the negative health and environmental effects of extreme, weather-related weather events. In addition, the country’s critical infrastructure is at risk from climate and extreme weather.
President Biden will not back down in addressing this emergency. Since taking office, he has mobilized his entire Administration to deal with the climate crisis and has made historic investments in clean energy and climate resilience in its Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. It will continue to take bold action to ensure a safe, healthy and clean energy future, while saving money for families, providing clean air and water, advancing environmental justice, and boosting U.S. manufacturing and competitiveness.
PROTECTS COMMUNITIES FROM EXTREME HEAT
This summer, millions of Americans are navigating the challenges and dangers posed by warnings of extreme heat and record temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The climate crisis is making heat waves more intense and frequent, affecting health across the country: sending tens of thousands of Americans to the emergency room, increasing the risks of heart and respiratory problems, and especially , endangering our workers, children, the elderly, historically underserved and overburdened communities, and people with underlying health conditions.
In response, last year the Biden-Harris Administration launched a broad set of new initiatives to advance workplace safety, build local resilience, and address the disproportionate impacts of extreme heat. Today, the Administration announces additional steps and progress in:
- Provide record funding to increase community resilience: Last year, President Biden doubled the funding available through FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program. This year, it is doubling it again, to an all-time high of $ 2.3 billion available to states, local communities, tribes and territories to proactively reduce their vulnerability to heat waves, drought, wildfires, floods, hurricanes and other dangers heightened by the President’s bipartisan Infrastructure Act. As part of the President’s Justice Initiative40, which set the goal of providing 40% of the overall benefits of federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities, FEMA prioritizes communities that have been around for a long time. marginalized, overburdened and poorly cared for.
- Expanding access to community air conditioners and refrigeration centers: In April, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released $ 385 million through LIHEAP to help families with energy costs of the home, including summer cooling, part of a record $ 8 billion that the The administration has planned, driven by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, to reduce cooling and heating costs for Americans of low income. Today, HHS publishes a guide that will help states, tribes, and territories expand their way of responding to extreme heat and supporting vulnerable communities through LIHEAP. The guide offers a number of flexible options, such as increasing funding for refrigeration assistance through the U.S. Rescue Plan; establish community cooling centers; and the purchase, distribution, or lending of efficient air conditioning equipment, evaporative refrigerators, and electric heat pumps — a more energy-efficient alternative to providing refrigeration services — to vulnerable households and individuals. HHS has also developed a LIHEAP and Extreme Heat website to provide online resources, including the Heat Stress Geographic Information Board (GIS) to help grant recipients and stakeholders track, view, and respond to trends and needs for heat stress across the country.
- Strengthen workplace safety: Heat is a growing threat to workplace safety, especially in high-risk sectors such as agriculture and construction. In April, Vice President Harris and Labor Secretary Walsh launched the first national emphasis program to protect millions of workers from heat illness and injury. Since then, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has conducted 564 heat-related inspections, focusing on more than 70 high-risk industries in 43 states. On days when the heat index is 80 ° F or higher, OSHA inspectors and compliance assistance specialists are engaging in proactive outreach and technical assistance to help stakeholders keep workers afloat. safe at work.
Through the Extreme Heat Interagency Working Group under the National Climate Working Group, the Administration is advancing a wide range of additional efforts, including a historic process of OSHA regulations toward the first federal heat standard to protect workers, EPA support for community communication strategies to help people. stay safe on the hottest days, a DHS Cooling Solutions Challenge to fund innovative responses to extreme heat, the NOAA community-led urban heat island mapping campaign, an urban and community forestry program USDA to equitably improve heat resilience and a new HHS health and climate perspective to inform health professionals about extreme heat and other climate-related health hazards.
PROMOTE THE MARINE WIND INDUSTRY AND JOB CREATION
Since President Biden set the bold goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, the Administration has approved the first large-scale projects and new areas of wind power, held record wind auctions and has issued an action plan to expedite the granting of permits. The private sector is following suit with investments to expand a U.S.-made wind power supply chain. In 2021 alone, investors announced $ 2.2 billion in new supply chain financing, including commitments to develop nine major manufacturing facilities to produce the foundations, towers, cables and blades of offshore wind turbines. Historic project labor agreements are helping to grow a diverse union workforce, create well-paid jobs, and support training programs.
To further expand these opportunities, President Biden today is:
- Potential for the implementation of the sea wind in the Gulf of Mexico: today, the …