PRESS CALL: Arizona Leaders Highlight Biden’s Infrastructure Announcement and Impacts on Climate and Jobs in Arizona
Washington D.C. – Today, in a press call, Arizona political leaders State Senator Kirsten Engel and Tempe Mayor Corey Woods talked about the positive impacts of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan and its implications for the future of Arizona’s infrastructure and economic development.
During the call, Sen. Engel and Mayor Woods discussed how these investments would boost the state’s economy, create thousands of good-paying union jobs, and improve the quality of life for hard-working families in Arizona.
Yesterday in Pittsburgh, Biden made the historic announcement of his American Jobs Plan in the framework of this administration’s Build Back Better agenda, which includes a $2+ trillion investment in clean energy and infrastructure. An already popular agenda with the support of over two-thirds of voters (68 percent), the plan makes ambitious investments that will create jobs and invest in the clean energy economy.
“The climate crisis is affecting every aspect of my constituent’s lives, affecting their health, their livelihood, and their safety every day,” said State Senator Engel. “The [president’s] plan will create badly needed jobs, especially for those who are bearing the brunt of the pandemic, people that are living in low-income communities and communities of color.”
She noted how the state is experiencing record drought, deadly extreme heat, and wildfires, producing catastrophic consequences for Arizonans’ health, environment, and the economy, calling all of us to act boldly to tackle the crisis.
“Arizonans understand the scale of the [climate] crisis here at home and across the nation,” said Mayor Woods. “Residents I talked to are eager for President Biden and Congress to deliver on the big investments truly needed to build back better. Arizona can be and should be at the forefront of the clean energy transformation.”
He highlighted how Tempe’s residents approved the city’s climate action plan adopted in 2019 and how the plan laid the foundation for energy transformation in the city.
In Arizona, communities of color that experience worse air quality, often stemming from dirty fossil fuels, could be at a higher risk from COVID-19, as air pollution has been linked with higher death rates from the novel virus. For this reason and despite these injustices, both participants highlighted the state’s huge opportunity stemming from Biden’s historic infrastructure plan announcement.
For a copy of the call’s recording email, [email protected]