NM Senators propose civilian climate corps
A global pandemic, worsening climate change and a Democratic majority in Washington, D.C. have created a once-in-a-generation opportunity for a national response to the climate crisis. To meet the moment, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, has proposed the Civilian Climate Corps Act, an initiative designed to put people to work helping their communities respond to the impact of climate change.
The Bill would authorize President Biden to use a variety of existing national service programs to create the corps, which would prepare communities for natural disasters, support resilient agriculture, develop green infrastructure and protect vulnerable coastlines.
"Look at the Carson National Forest. If you put people to work doing responsible thinning projects that are going to cause the forest to grow faster - sequester more carbon in the soil and in the roots. At the same time, you're making that forest more tolerant of low-level fire events. And you're producing more water off of the watershed as a result," said Heinrich. "There are a lot of landscapes like that, where having people work directly on the landscape to do restoration is going to have many different benefits, including climate benefits."
The Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) borrows from the legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his efforts to build the nation's infrastructure during the Great Depression in the 1930s, as well as more recent federal initiatives like the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps.
"I think that many of the things that the original CCC folks did will be applicable today," said Heinrich, who was elected to the Senate in 2012. "A lot of their focus was on infrastructure."
"One of the primary differences is that we also now recognize that healthy, natural landscapes are a form of infrastructure that protect us from floods, protect us from fire, sequester carbon," he said.
The bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-NM, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-CO, and U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-VA, fits into the larger Build Back Better infrastructure initiative being pushed by President Biden that is currently being debated.
The CCC would be operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior, in coordination with other federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Its mission would include conservation and restoration on public lands, assistance for frontline communities adapting to climate change, natural climate solutions, replacement of vulnerable infrastructure, protection of biodiversity and ecological resilience.
The Corps would prioritize projects that direct resources to disadvantaged communities that are often disproportionately harmed by climate change and environmental degradation. It would also reserve five percent of its annual appropriations for Indian Tribes and indigenous communities to work on infrastructure projects.
"We just went through a year and a half where people really rediscovered how important our public lands and outdoor spaces are to their mental health and well being," said Heinrich. "But we have not invested in that infrastructure adequately for decades."
"This is [an] opportunity for CCC participants to work on that infrastructure, whether that is a campground or a trail," he said. "We have a lot of trails that need to be restored in northern New Mexico, or fish barriers, so that we can recover our native wildlife, like our Rio Grande cutthroat trout."
Funding for the CCC could exceed tens of billions of dollars per year, according to Heinrich. For comparison, the Peace Corps has an annual appropriation of roughly $500 million, and AmeriCorps has an annual appropriation of roughly $1 billion.
In June, Sen. Heinrich participated in a bicameral discussion on the need for a Civilian Climate Corps. Lawmakers talked about the need to pay CCC workers a $15 minimum wage, tactics to create a diverse, local and sustainable work force, and recruitment strategies.
"In the 1930s, they were called CCC boys," said Heinrich. "Now, we have a much broader vision - this is going to be people from all walks of life, all genders, all zip codes. And compensation is really important."
"When I was an AmeriCorps member - I have no idea why my girlfriend at the time, my now-wife, let me do that - it was $660 a month. We were completely dependent on her paycheck to pay the rent. And that kept a lot of people from being able to do public service," said Heinrich.
"You come out of college, and you've got student loan debt - it's not an option for you not to pay that back. So it's important for us to pay people enough for this to be a living-wage activity."
Ben Thomas, executive director of the workforce training nonprofit Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC), said, "This is a game-changer for the corps movement."
"What this could mean is a significant influx of funding. What this could mean is changing legislation, allowing us to pay more in wages to our members. What this could mean is more hands on deck to address some of the issues that we're seeing out in the woods," said Thomas. "Specific to Taos, one of those big issues is the concern around forest fires."
Each year, RMYC trains 1-200 young men and women in land conservation projects, and provides them with personal and professional development opportunities.
"We're proud to offer some of the highest wages in the country for corps programming," said Thomas. "It's a small salary, but the hourly equivalent - next year - will be $11.50 an hour."
Those salaries would almost certainly go up if the Civilian Climate Corps Act were to pass in Congress and be signed into law, giving not just young adults but all adults including seniors an opportunity to work towards climate change resiliency.
"We have so much capacity in our local communities in New Mexico," said Heinrich. "I want folks from all of those communities to be able to both give their service, and then reap the benefits of that national service."
