President Biden announced $7 billion in grants for solar projects on Monday and sought to antagonize Republicans who want to roll back his climate change policies.
Speaking in Prince William Forest, Virginia, Mr. Biden said money from his signature climate and energy bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, would help provide solar power for hundreds of thousands of homes. in disadvantaged communities.
“Despite the overwhelming devastation in red and blue states, there are still those who deny that the climate is in crisis,” Mr. Biden said at the start of a week in which his top officials will go out across the country to promote its environmental policy. “Our MAGA Republican friends don’t seem to think it’s a crisis.”
He also said the American Climate Corps, a new workforce for people hoping to fight climate change, will create thousands of jobs for the next generation.
Mr. Biden’s Earth Day event comes as he tries to energize younger voters, many of whom are disillusioned with the 2024 candidates and angry about the administration’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza.
On Monday, Mr. Biden tried to strike a middle ground by talking about unrest on college campuses. Asked if he condemned “anti-Semitic protesters,” Mr. Biden said, “I condemn anti-Semitic protests.” He added: “I also condemn those who do not understand what is happening to the Palestinians.”
Mr. Biden leads his Republican rival, former President Donald J. Trump among young voters, and many approve of his record on the environment in contrast to Mr. Trump’s. Mr. Biden’s lead, however, is smaller than it was at this point in the 2020 election cycle, according to Harvard Youth Poll released last week.
Other poll, from Octoberfound that just 31 percent of voters under 30 were “satisfied” with Mr. Biden’s record on climate change.
Danielle Deiseroth, executive director of Data for Progress, a left-leaning research firm, said Mr. Biden could use his efforts to fight climate change to boost support among young voters.
“The biggest fear is not necessarily that young voters will flock to Trump. They are the ones who stay at home,” Ms. Deiseroth said. “That’s where the climate stuff comes into play, to energize and also scare young people to get out and vote.”
Mr. Biden has faced a messaging problem when it comes to the Lower Inflation Act, his most consequential climate policy to date. The legislation contained hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits to help companies switch to low-carbon sources of electricity, such as wind, solar and nuclear power. It also included billions in incentives for people to buy electric vehicles and electric heat pumps for their homes.
The law, signed into law in 2022, is already having ripple effects: Across the country, businesses have announced plans for more than 150 factories that would manufacture electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and wind turbines. Sales of electric cars and installations of large-scale solar power plants both hit record highs last year.
However, polls show that few Americans seem to know about the law.
One potential problem is that many of the climate law’s effects are not yet fully visible. While companies have announced more than $100 billion in new manufacturing investments in states such as Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, many of those plants have yet to operate.
Some environmentalists tried to publicize the effects of the law. Climate Power, a liberal advocacy group, plans to spend $80 million in campaign-year advertising to contrast Mr. Biden’s legislative accomplishments with the actions of Mr. Trump, who has mocked climate science and sworn to revoke programs to promote clean energy.
Other climate activists have sharply criticized Mr. Biden for not doing enough to curb fossil fuel drilling in the United States. U.S. oil and gas production soared to record highs last year. Many activists have focused their ire on Mr. Biden’s approval of Willow, an $8 billion oil drilling project on pristine federal land in Alaska, and the federal approval of a natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia that has been opposed by environmentalists. .
“President Biden has taken historic action on climate change and has done more than any president in history to combat the climate crisis, but that bar is unfortunately too low,” said Stevie O’Hanlon, director of communications for Sunrise Movement, a group of young climate activists. “If Joe Biden wants to be seen as the climate president by young voters, he needs to take decisive action to end the fossil fuel era.”
In recent months, Mr. Biden has taken a number of steps to try to slow domestic fossil fuel production. In January, the administration said it would suspend approval of new terminals exporting liquefied natural gas in order to study the issue further. This month, the Interior Department said it would ban oil drilling on nearly 13 million acres of Alaska’s North Slope.
Lisa Friedman contributed to the report.