UPDATE (September 20, 2023): President Biden took executive action to launch the American Climate Corps. This is a big victory for our youth, climate, jobs, and future—and something Evergreen first called Congress and President Biden to do in April 2021. The Climate Corps is an opportunity to provide training and good-paying union jobs to the next generation of clean energy workers with an emphasis on bringing along communities that have been historically underserved or left behind.
With the support of President Biden, now is the moment to create a new national Civilian Climate Corps (CCC). Evergreen has mapped out a detailed pathway to build a modern CCC and put Americans to work building a just and sustainable future in their communities. Congress should harness the ambition of the New Deal era and reinvigorate the American people’s faith in their government.
Corps programs are historic and proven — the idea for a modern CCC draws inspiration from the success of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps and local corps programs across the country. And a new CCC has been gaining momentum. In 2009, then-Representative Jay Inslee successfully included a Clean Energy Service Corps in a national service bill. Then 10 years later, Inslee became the first presidential candidate to propose a nationwide climate corps. When Evergreen Action launched to take up the mantle of Governor Inslee’s “gold standard” climate plan, we worked to include a modern CCC in President Biden’s campaign platform.
Now, this plan is poised to jumpstart a climate jobs revolution. President Biden included a CCC in his infrastructure proposal, and climate leaders on Capitol Hill are working to make an expansive and impactful climate corps a reality. They have the wind at their backs: polling shows a new CCC is wildly popular. This is President Biden’s FDR moment and the Civilian Climate Corps will help him seize it.