Westland Mayor Bill Wild, MML President, and Grand Rapids Mayor Bliss, former MML President, met with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Friday about the American Jobs Plan.

Westland Mayor and Michigan Municipal League Board President Bill Wild met with U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm Friday about the American Jobs Plan.

The meeting was organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Mayor Wild, along with Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, former League Board President, gave a presentation to the Energy Secretary. There is language within the $2.3 trillion Jobs Plan to support clean energy bock grants for state, local and tribal governments. The mayors were in support of this provision, Wild said.

“We are pushing to reauthorize the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from 2009 and not try to create a new block Grant. The data is already available and the results are proven that it met the goals of the program and created/saved jobs,” Mayor Wild said.

President Biden recently announced the American Jobs Plan to rebuild the economy and create good-paying jobs for workers in America’s cities, towns and villages through investments in infrastructure and workforce development.

The League has advocated for additional investment in infrastructure in the traditional sense (roads, bridges, water, and sewer), but also in a more broad-based community infrastructure view (broadband, housing, parks and workforce development). This plan addresses many of those areas. Read more about the Jobs Plan in this Inside 208 post by the League’s John LaMacchia.