BALTIMORE — Among the guests at the State of the Union was a Baltimore man who works for a local non-profit.
The organization called Civic Works deals with clean energy and is expected to benefit from the large bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last year.
Touting the bi-partisan infrastructure deal during his state of the union speech, President Joe Biden calls it the biggest single investment in history.
With billions going to fix the nation's roads and bridges as well as money to address climate change, the law is also expected to add millions of jobs.
“I’m totally impressed and psyched by what he said,” said Karim Peoples, who was Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes virtual guest during the State of the Union. “That money is important and crucial to our community.”
Peoples works for Civic Works, an organization the infrastructure law is expected to help.
It’s an organization that focuses on job training and job placement for people looking to get into the energy community.
He says the money from the infrastructure deal will help Civic Works hire more staff and expand its programs.
“There’s going to be a big focus on building our internal infrastructure. That means more jobs for the people I train, we’re training right now in utility infrastructure so we’re training the BGE workers who are going out fixing the gas lines for people in Baltimore," he explained.
He says he believes is a win for the people of Baltimore.
“I’ve seen the good that this money can do in this community. I’ve been there for some of the projects, I’ve been there for homeowners who have been able to provide weatherization measures in order to make their house more energy efficient. I’ve had homeowners in tears because we’ve been able to save a life doing the work we can do,” Peoples detailed.
He says the money from the infrastructure law will not only help get more people jobs, but more good paying jobs, again as he says a win for people in the city of Baltimore.
