FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Neurohr, jneurohr@clearpointpa.com, 717-364-6452
Keystone Research on President Biden’s Earth Day Announcement of New Details Regarding the American Climate Corps Program
HARRISBURG (April 22, 2024) – President Biden today issued an Earth Day announcement with new details on his new American Climate Corps, which will create 2,000 new positions across 37 states starting this summer, as well as a new website, climatecorps.gov, a new toolkit, and more details on the timeline and specifics of the American Climate Corps.
The President’s announcement included one of the main recommendations of ReImagine Appalachia’s “Growing a Restoration Workforce” released a week ago: establish a link between the climate corps and good paying careers, including in the unionized building trades. The President announced the creation of precisely such a link via a new partnership with the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ nonprofit partner TradesFutures. Beginning this summer, every American Climate Corps member will have access to TradesFutures’ industry leading apprenticeship readiness curriculum during their term of service in the American Climate Corps.
In response to the President’s announcement, Keystone Research executive director, Dr. Stephen Herzenberg, coauthor of “Growing a Restoration Workforce” said, “The new partnership between the American Climate Corps and the non-profit arm of the national building trades unions make real the potential for climate corps positions to become a pathway to high-paying careers for thousands of Americans. The partnerships gives climate corps members the chance to complete a curriculum that America’s building trades unions designed to give diverse workers the foundation they need to enter apprenticeship.
“Pennsylvania should also look to join Vermont, New Mexico, and Illinois by launching its own Climate Corps program, capitalizing on the success of the existing ‘PA Outdoor Corps.’
“The President’s announcement today puts in place more of the elements required, long term, for a climate corps that employs millions of disconnected workers as well as diverse young people. That’s the scale required to restore hope to the long-term unemployed and maximize the tree planting, wetlands restoration, and climate smart agriculture and forestry needed to get us to net zero carbon emissions.”
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The Keystone Research Center is a nonpartisan economic think tank dedicated to conducting research and advancing policies that promote shared prosperity and economic opportunity for all Pennsylvanians.