Good-paying clean energy jobs are on the rise

President Joe Biden signed into law on Aug. 16 the Inflation Reduction Act– legislation that provides $369 billion for clean energy and climate change mitigation. (Courtesy: White House)

Biden Administration touts climate policy investments and achievements

With November’s presidential election looming large, the Biden Administration is highlighting the successes of its climate policy. In a sprawling fact sheet, the White House says “President Biden has delivered on the most ambitious climate, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history—taking bold action to reduce climate pollution across every sector of the economy, protecting more than 26 million acres of lands and waters, and restoring the vital role of science in guiding federal decision-making.”

The Administration will continue to implement the President’s “Investing in America” agenda, which includes the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In totality, the United States claims the largest-ever investment by any country in clean energy, energy security, clean air and water, environmental justice, combatting climate change, and enhancing climate resilience.

Per the White House, clean energy jobs are opening up across the country, American manufacturing is booming, and companies have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy investments. By 2030, the U.S. intends to cut climate pollution in half from 2005 levels and hopes to achieve economy-wide, net zero emissions no later than 2050.

Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, a key component of the administration’s climate agenda, is focused on embedding environmental justice into clean energy and climate programs, ensuring communities “on the frontlines of climate change benefit from this historic investment in climate solutions.”

The White House fact sheet breaks down sections of the Biden Administration’s budget; I’ve included some highlights below.

Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, creation of clean energy jobs, and addressing the climate crisis

The budget invests $1.6 billion through the Department of Energy (DOE) to support clean energy workforce and infrastructure projects, including $385 million to weatherize and retrofit homes of low-income Americans, $113 million to create jobs and ensure reliable domestic supply chains, $95 million to electrify Tribal homes and transition Tribal colleges and universities to renewable energy, and $102 million to support utilities and state and local governments in building a more secure, reliable, and resilient grid.

The budget builds on the investments made in the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and includes more than $2.9 billion in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) climate-related programs. Their goals: address the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, expand upon the GHG Reporting Program and Sinks Inventory, implement provisions in the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act to continue phasing out the production and import of hydrofluorocarbons, advance equitable implementation of EPA authorities and directives in Indian Country, and engage with the global community to respond to the shared challenge of building resilience in the face of climate impacts. The budget earmarks $10.6 billion in the DOE climate and clean energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment programs.

GO DEEPER: Jose Zayas, EVP of Policy and Programs, American Council on Renewable Energy joined the Factor This! podcast to break down the key components of the historic Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $369 billion dedicated to clean energy and climate change.

Reduction in home energy and water costs, advancements in developing and permitting

Reducing household energy and water costs is a priority for the administration. The budget provides $4.1 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)—building on the $7 billion in additional funding the administration has secured for LIHEAP since 2021—to help families access home energy and weatherization assistance. In addition, since the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) expired at the end of 2023, the budget proposes states should have the option to use a portion of their LIHEAP funds to provide water bill assistance to low-income households.

The budget also has $142 million to continue the administration’s progress in deploying clean energy on public lands and waters, “spurring economic development and creating thousands of good-paying jobs.” This funding supports the leasing, planning, and permitting of solar, wind, and geothermal energy projects, and associated transmission infrastructure that would help mitigate the impacts of climate change. The budget includes over $1 billion to support environmental review and permitting processes that “are effective, efficient, and transparent, guided by science, and shaped by early and meaningful public engagement and input,” per the White House.

Investments in climate science and innovation

The White House calls this the “Clean Energy Innovation Pipeline.” The budget includes $10.7 billion, an increase of $2.7 billion over FY 2021 Enacted levels, across DOE, NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense (DOD), and other agencies to support researchers and entrepreneurs transforming innovations into commercial clean energy products, including offshore wind, industrial heat, sustainable aviation fuel, and grid infrastructure.

Since the start of the Administration, the President has requested and Congress has enacted year-over-year increases in the total government-wide funding for clean energy innovation. Across DOE, the budget provides over $325 million to support the research, development, and demonstration of technologies and processes to increase the domestic supply of sustainable critical minerals and materials essential for several clean energy technologies. The budget provides more than $500 million for green aviation at NASA, over $500 million for clean energy research at the NSF, and $845 million for DOE efforts to accelerate the viability of commercial fusion energy.

The budget also has $4.5 billion for climate research across NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NSF, and other agencies. This includes $150 million at NASA to develop the next-generation land-imaging mission (Landsat Next) and more than $600 million for NASA in research grants to enhance understanding of Earth systems, including climate and natural hazards. It includes $900 million for NSF, which supports a broad portfolio of research that includes atmospheric composition, water and carbon cycles, and climate resilience technologies.

The budget also invests $275 million to continue to leverage science to better understand the impacts of climate change and to inform and improve land management practices from the Federal to the local level. The budget earmarks $407 million for DOE to support fundamental research, including modeling and scientific user facilities to enable enhanced predictability of dynamically changing climate, environmental, and Earth systems, which includes predictability of climate trends and extremes that influence the design and deployment of next-generation energy systems.

Advances Environmental Justice

Delivers for communities often left behind.  The Budget supports several key initiatives to accelerate energy equity and justice, including communities overburdened by pollution, investing nearly $1.5 billion across EPA in support of environmental justice efforts, including investments that will support cleaner air and cleaner water in frontline communities. This includes a new $25 million grant to develop Direct Implementation Tribal Cooperative Agreements to carry out crucial EPA programs in Indian Country with an emphasis on addressing the impacts of climate change.

Reduces health and environmental hazards for at-risk communities. The Budget provides $8.2 billion to address DOE legacy waste and contamination in communities used during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War for nuclear weapons production. The Budget includes other key investments in programs that reduce environmental hazards like EPA’s Superfund program, Brownfields program, and Toxic Substances Control Act implementation. The Administration will ensure the investments for the management of toxic chemicals, including per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, cleanup of legacy pollution, and long-term stewardship of these sites align with the Justice40 Initiative to benefit disadvantaged communities.

Invests in clean air. The Administration continues to support investment in EPA’s work of limiting emissions of harmful air pollutants and tackling the climate crisis. The Budget provides a total of $1.5 billion for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, an increase of $690 million since the beginning of the Administration, to continue the development of national programs, policies, and regulations that control air pollution and radiation exposure. This funding includes $187 million for the Atmospheric Protection Program to support implementation and compliance with greenhouse gas emission standards and to tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad. Also included is $100 million for the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) grant program, which funds grants and rebates to reduce harmful emissions from diesel engines, and $70 million for the Targeted Airshed Grants (TAG), which helps reduce air pollution in the most polluted nonattainment areas.

Advances climate justice and ensures compliance with the nation’s environmental laws. At DOJ, the Budget renews its investment in the Office of Environmental Justice to protect overburdened and disadvantaged communities from the harms caused by environmental crimes, pollution, and climate change. The Administration continues investments at EPA to ensure compliance with environmental laws, including $172 million for compliance monitoring efforts including funds to conduct inspections in underserved, disadvantaged, and overburdened communities, and funds to rebuild the inspector corps.

Trains the next generation of leaders in emerging fields

Supports and expands the American Climate Corps. Last year, the Administration announced the launch of the American Climate Corps (ACC) to mobilize a new generation of more than 20,000 clean energy, conservation, and climate resilience workers and leaders, and this year, the first cohort of ACC members will begin their service. The ACC will provide job training and service opportunities on a wide range of projects that tackle climate change in communities around the country. The Budget provides $15 million to support and expand AmeriCorps’ ACC hub and $23 million to support over 1,700 additional ACC members, as well as $8 billion in mandatory funding to support an additional 50,000 ACC members annually by 2031. This builds on additional investments to support climate-related workforce development and service initiatives across all seven ACC agencies.

Promotes equity in STEM education and workforce training. In support of the CHIPS and Science Act’s priority of building a diverse, STEM-capable workforce, the Budget provides $1.4 billion for STEM education and workforce development programs at NSF that have an emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The Budget also includes funding for programs focused on increasing the participation of groups historically underrepresented in science and engineering fields by supporting curriculum program design, research on successful recruitment and retention methods, development of outreach or mentorship programs, fellowships, and $256 million in funding to build capacity for advancing energy research and developing a new energy workforce, as well as an additional $100 million for enhancing general research capacity at HCBUs, TCCUs, and MSIs through the Department of Education. The Budget also provides $46 million to NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project, to increase competitive awards to minority-serving institutions to recruit and retain underrepresented and underserved students in STEM fields.

Broadens access to registered apprenticeships in clean energy and the industries of the future. The Budget increases support for Registered Apprenticeships, an evidence-based earn-as-you-learn model for training future workforces for jobs that don’t require a college degree in the clean energy, construction, semiconductor, transportation and logistics, education, health, and other growing and in-demand industries. The Budget invests $335 million, a $50 million increase above the 2023 enacted level, and supports expanding existing Registered Apprenticeship programs in clean energy-related occupations.  This investment would also be used to reduce barriers and expand access, training, and opportunities that can increase the number of workers from historically underrepresented groups, including people of color, women, and people with disabilities, who participate in Registered Apprenticeships.

Doubles down on America’s global climate leadership

Achieves the Administration’s climate finance pledge. The Budget provides a path to achieving the President’s $11 billion commitment for international climate finance, including $3 billion for the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE). A signature initiative, PREPARE supports more than half a billion people in developing countries to adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change, including through private sector mobilization. In 2023, PREPARE brought 21 new companies and partners on board, with commitments to accelerate adaptation action in vulnerable developing countries that have mobilized more than $2 billion. The Budget also supports a $500 million FY 2025 contribution through mandatory funding to finance the Green Climate Fund (GCF), as part of the $3 billion multi-year pledge to expand climate adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries, and $100 million for the Amazon Fund to combat deforestation and preserve the world’s largest tropical rainforest.