President Biden's administration announced on Friday they wish to invest $575 million in projects to help coastal communities adapt to climate change.
The proposal, which would fall under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Climate-Ready Coasts initiative, would fund 19 projects along the seaboard and Great Lakes regions. Overall the investments would cover 15 states, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Micronesia.
"This is a historic investment in our nation’s climate resilience, the largest in the history of the Commerce Department, and a key piece of the Biden-Harris Administrations’ ambitious climate agenda," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement. "Thanks to this Administration’s commitment to investing in America, we’re going to continue to help underserved communities across the country develop and implement new strategies to protect themselves from flooding, storm surge, and extreme weather events.”
Biden's announcement comes on the heels of the Democratic Party shifting its focus from boosting his candidacy for reelection to backing his Vice President, Kamala Harris, as the new nominee. In a statement to Salon, Harris campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said that a Harris administration would continue Biden's climate change policies.
“No one will fight harder to address the climate crisis than Vice President Harris. She’s proud to have delivered the most significant climate legislation in American history with President Biden, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs and lowering costs for hard working families, while Donald Trump continues to call climate change a 'hoax' and promises to gut the IRA and ship those jobs overseas," Schuster said. "The Vice President will ensure we continue the essential work to save our planet by defeating climate-denier-in-chief Donald Trump this November."
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