President Joe Biden said on Monday that his administration plans to spend an additional $600 million in taxpayer money on fighting climate change in coastal communities.
Biden made the announcement after touring Silicon Valley and the coastal areas around San Francisco Bay in California. Flanked by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Biden justified the funding as part of an “aggressive climate action” to counter the economic and environmental impact of the region’s wildfires, droughts, and floods, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Folks, first, starting tomorrow, the Department of Congr — Commerce will launch the first and largest competitive Climate Resilience Regional Challenge to provide $600 million to coastal and Great Lake communities that are building projects to protect against the impacts of climate change from sea-level rise, flooding, and storm surge,” Biden said in his remarks.
In an earlier White House statement, the cost of the Climate Resilience Regional Challenge initiative was quoted as $575, with a separate $67.4 million allocated to protecting California’s power grid from weather disasters and wildfires. The Challenge funds will come from taxpayer money given to the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act.
The coastal area where Biden chose to announce the Challenge program includes communities with median home prices that industry experts rank as among the highest in the nation, including the priciest area by zip code, Atherton, with a median single-family home price of $7.9 million, and nine more in the top 25.
Biden unveiled the funding from the salt marshes of Palo Alto, No.20 on the aforementioned median home prices list ($3.6 million).
The announcement is a prelude to a series of campaign fundraising events that Biden plans to attend in California, where he will make his case for a second term.
Biden made stopping climate change one of his administration’s top priorities during his presidential campaign. On his first day in office, Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accords from which his predecessor — former President Donald Trump — had withdrawn.