STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT BIDEN SIGNING THE COVID RELIEF, URGENT NEED FOR BOLD INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT TO POWER AN AMERICAN RECOVERY

Washington, D.C. – Today, Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power, issued the following statement as President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion dollar COVID relief bill into law:

“The American Rescue Plan President Biden signed into law today will be life-changing for millions and will bring the urgent support needed to communities suffering from both the health and economic consequences of COVID. As Biden, congressional leaders, and working individuals have urgently repeated, this moment demands boldness. Our economy is still reeling from the pandemic and we are at a make-or-break moment in the fight against the climate crisis. Now is not the time to play it safe. The administration and Congress owe it to the country to make ambitious investments in infrastructure to power a strong, just, and equitable recovery. In doing so, our leaders have the opportunity to create millions of good-paying clean energy jobs that will spur economic recovery while fighting climate change. This is a time for boldness and action from our leaders.”

Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better plan presents an opportunity to recover the jobs lost during the pandemic and create millions of new jobs. Since the pandemic began, there are 10 million fewer jobs, with more than 2.5 million women and 1.8 million men leaving the workforce entirely. Biden’s Build Back Better plan will create millions of new good-paying clean energy jobs in communities across the country, enabling Americans to get back to work while building solutions to the climate crisis.

Clean energy is the fastest growing industry in America, and these jobs pay well above the national average, have good benefits, and can’t be outsourced. At the start of 2020, nearly 3.4 million workers in the U.S. worked in clean energy — that’s three times as many workers as employed by the fossil fuel industry.