Biden marks Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal solar power grants

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities. He also plans to expand his New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program. The grants are being awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which unveiled the 60 recipients on Monday. The projects are expected to eventually reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million annually, according to senior administration officials.

Biden’s latest environmental announcements come as he is working to energize young voters for his reelection campaign. Young people were a key part of a broad but potentially fragile coalition that helped him defeat thenPresident Donald Trump in 2020. Some have joined protests around the country of the administration’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Senior administration officials said young Americans are keenly invested in the Biden climate agenda and want to actually help enact it. The Climate Corps initiative is a way for them to do that, the officials said.

Solar is gaining traction as a key renewable energy source that could reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, which emit planet-warming greenhouse gases. Not only is it clean, but solar energy can also boost the reliability of the electric grid.

But solar energy can have high costs for initial installation, making it inaccessible for many Americans — and potentially meaning a mingling of environmental policy with election-year politics. Forty-nine of the new grants are state-level awards, six serve Native American tribes and five are multi-state awards. They can be used for investments such as rooftop solar and community solar gardens.

Biden is making the announcement at northern Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park, about 30 miles southwest of Washington. It was established in 1936 as a summer camp for underprivileged youth from Washington, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps to help create jobs during the Great Depression.

Biden used executive action last year to create the American Climate Corps modeled on Roosevelt’s New Deal. He is announcing Monday that nearly 2,000 corps positions are being offered across 36 states, including jobs offered in partnership with the North American Building Trades Unions.

Biden has often used Earth Day as a backdrop to further his administration’s climate initiatives. Last year, he signed an executive order creating the White House Office of Environmental Justice, meant to help ensure that poverty, race and ethnic status do not lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm.

He has tried to draw a contrast with GOP congressional leaders, who have called for less regulation of oil production to lower energy prices. Biden officials counter that GOP policies benefit highly profitable oil companies and could ultimately undermine U.S. efforts to compete with the Chinese in the renewable energy sector..

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10-year-old boy confesses to fatally shooting a man in his sleep 2 years

ago, Texas authorities say

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A visiting his grandfather, who 10-year-old boy has confessed lived a few lots away from to an unsolved killing in Texas, Rasberry in the RV park. He telling investigators that he described the 9 mm pistol and shot a man he did not know its “dirt and army green” color, while the victim slept, authorities and said he took it from the said Friday. glove box of his grandfather’s

The boy, who was just shy truck. of his eighth birthday when The boy described entering the man was shot two years Rasberry’s RV, shooting him ago, has been evaluated at a in the head, and shooting again psychiatric hospital but cannot into the couch before leaving, be charged with the crime then returning the gun to the because of his age at the time, truck, investigators said. the Gonzales County Sheriff’s The boy told his interviewer Office said in a news release. he had seen Rasberry in the

Texas law requires a child to RV park earlier in the day, be at least 10 years old to have but never met him and had criminal culpability. The boy is no reason to be mad at him. being held in juvenile detention Rasberry’s body was found for threatening a student after he failed to show up for on a bus in another incident work for two days. earlier this month, authorities The boy said his grandfather said. later sold the pistol. Deputies

Brandon O’Quinn Rasberry, located it at a pawn shop. Shell 32, was shot in the head in casings from the previous 2022 while he slept at an RV crime scene were matched to park in Nixon, Texas, about the gun, investigators said. 60 miles (97 kilometers) east The boy was placed in of San Antonio, investigators 72-hour emergency detention said. He had just moved in a “because of the severity of the few days before. crime and because of the continued

The boy’s possible connection concern for the child’s to the case was uncovered mental wellbeing,” the sheriff’s after sheriff’s deputies office said. were contacted on April 12 of He was brought to a psychiatric this year about a student who hospital in San Antonio threatened to assault and kill for evaluation and treatment another student on a school and then was taken back to bus. They learned the boy had Gonzales County. He was made previous statements that placed in juvenile detention on he had killed someone two a charge of making a terroristic years ago. threat for the school bus

The boy was taken to a incident. child advocacy center, where It was not immediately he described for interviewers clear if the boy’s family has an details of Rasberry’s death attorney. The Associated Press “consistent with first-hand left a telephone message seeking knowledge” of the crime, investigators comment at the office of said. Gonzales County Attorney Paul

The boy said he had been Watkins.