White House Announces Funding Plan for American Climate Corps

The White House announced on Tuesday its plan to pay for the recently launched American Climate Corps (ACC) program, which will combine funds from multiple agencies as well as appeals to Congress.

The program will partner with the departments of Commerce, Interior, Agriculture, Labor and Energy, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps, to train young people for jobs in conservation, clean energy and climate resilience, as first reported by NBC News.

The White House launched the program in September.

“We continue to think that Congress spending is still a good idea, that hasn’t changed, but we continue to use our creativity, to make sure that we really are using every tool available to us to tackle the climate crisis,” Maggie Thomas, special assistant for climate to President Joe Biden, told NBC.

Their goal is to train more than 20,000 Americans, starting with ACC's first cohort by summer 2024. The White House announced nearly 50,000 people from every state and territory have signed up to learn more about joining the ACC.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., are set to join talks to educate and motivate young people to apply in a portal that will be launched next Spring.

The ACC was initially going to be funded by the Inflation Reduction Act — more specifically, the Build Back Better Act — but it was ultimately dropped.

The first agency program the ACC will use to get funds is the Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants program — a part of the Environmental Protection Agency — which received $2 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

"What we’re doing is writing into our funding opportunities the option for local communities to take advantage of this tool," Thomas continued. "And if this is the right tool for them, we want to make sure that there are ways for them to apply and to get money to do so."