(The Center Square) – Applications are open until Jan. 21 to fill 30 seats on the new MI Healthy Climate Corps program.
The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s Office of Climate and Energy program will field 30 AmeriCorps members to help communities fight climate change in March 2024.
Projects will be specific to the community, but could include connecting residents to clean energy or energy-efficient programs, helping access clean public transit and bicycle-friendly infrastructure, and researching and assessing opportunities to advance “environmental justice.”
A release says members will also implement climate resilience measures.
MHC Corps members will receive a $30,000-35,000 stipend for the initial eight-month term and travel, lodging, and meal support for select in-person events. Member will:
• Receive an education award to use towards loans or future education expenses.
• Receive healthcare benefits, including dental, vision, and mental health support.
• Become eligible for AmeriCorps child care assistance.
• Be granted free admission to EGLE’s annual MI Healthy Climate Conference.
• Participate in fellowship building and receive training and professional development opportunities.
Individuals must be 18 years old to serve and no degree or formal work experience is required. The start date is March 18, 2024, and the service term runs through Nov. 15, 2024.
The project is funded from $1.3 million of federal funds.
These AmeriCorps members will work to advance the goals of the MI Healthy climate plan through targeted climate action projects in state agencies, local governments, nonprofit organizations, universities, and businesses in Michigan.
“This is an exciting new chapter in Michigan’s effort to assist communities, businesses, and all Michiganders with the knowledge and tools necessary to fully engage with climate mitigation and resilience work,” EGLE Director Phil Roos said in a statement. “These leaders will be ‘boots on the ground’ to help really dig into the best strategies to help meet the state’s climate goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.”
Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy said the program will “do nothing to impact climate.”
“Programs like the Michigan Healthy Climate Corps are feel-good efforts that may be effective at grabbing headlines, but they will do nothing to impact climate or improve the natural environment,” Hayes told The Center Square in an email. “That’s also the case for the broader net zero and EV transition plans being mandated by Governor Whitmer. If Michigan achieves 100% of its climate targets—a highly unlikely prospect—the same models used by the U.N.’s IPCC show that reduced CO2 emissions from Michigan could potentially lower world average temperatures by 1/1,000th of a degree Celsius in the year 2,100. That means the only impact that spending $30,000 to $35,000 per person to employ a group of 30 people for 8 months will be to add another $1 million to the growing tax burden that is already being paid by Michigan taxpayers.”
One of the Healthy Climate Goals is to enact electric vehicle charging infrastructure for 2 million EVs by 2030, although Michigan has about 34,380 EVs registered statewide.
The following groups are recruiting climate corps: the cities of Detroit, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Marquette, and Washtenaw Counties, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Office of Public Lands and Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Worker and Community Economic Transition
A second cohort will begin an 11-month term in September 2024.
