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TRIANGLE, Virginia (AP) -- President Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities -- while criticizing Republicans who want to gut his policies to address climate change.
Seeking reelection in November, Biden said, "Despite the overwhelming devastation in red and blue states, there are still those who deny the climate is in crisis."
He took specific aim at supporters of former President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement.
"My MAGA Republican friends don't seem to think it's a crisis," Biden said Monday during a visit to Virginia's Prince William Forest Park, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest Washington. "They actually want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides the funding for the vast majority of these projects, and roll back protections for clean air and clean water."
The president also used the trip to announce that nearly 2,000 corps positions are being offered across 36 states as part of his New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program, including jobs offered in partnership with the North American Building Trades Unions. Biden used executive action last year to create the American Climate Corps modeled on Roosevelt's New Deal.
"You'll get paid to fight climate change," he said Monday.
Biden made the announcements in a shady spot in Prince William Forest Park, which was established in 1936 as a summer camp for underprivileged youth from Washington. That was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps to help create jobs during the Great Depression.