The White House has a new help wanted ad seeking thousands of young Americans to be paid and trained for green energy and environmental jobs.
The White House has a new help wanted ad seeking thousands of young Americans to be paid and trained for green energy and environmental jobs.
President Biden used his executive power on Wednesday to create the American Climate Corps, a New Deal-style jobs program that the White House says in the first year will put more than 20,000 young people in careers to combat climate change through clean energy, conservation and climate resilience.
Mr. Biden signed the order amid international protests as part of the annual Climate Week and after years of lobbying from environmental groups to establish such a program.
“We’re opening up pathways to good-paying careers, lifetimes of being involved in the work of making our communities more fair, more sustainable, more resilient,” White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters.
The head of the youth-led climate activist group Sunrise Movement, which led calls for the program and represents a core constituency for Mr. Biden, has bent the ears of White House officials for years and said young voters focused on climate change want to see more action in the run-up to the 2024 election.
“I am thrilled to say that the White House has been responsive to our generation’s demand for a Climate Corps and that President Biden acknowledges that this is just the beginning of building the climate workforce of the future,” Sunrise Movement Executive Director Varshini Prakash told reporters during a White House press call.
