Biden Administration Launches Largest Rural Clean Energy Initiative Since the New Deal

WESTBY, WI, Sept. 5, 2024 – During a visit to Wisconsin today, President Joe Biden and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack will announce more than $7.3 billion in financing for rural electric cooperatives to build clean energy for rural communities across the country through the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program. said a press release by USDA.

Together, New ERA and other investments in rural clean energy in the President’s Inflation Reduction Act make up the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936 as part of the New Deal.

Collectively, the 16 selections announced today – funded by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda – will leverage private investments of more than $29 billion to build more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy for rural communities across the country. The selectees announced today will reduce and avoid at least 43.7 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to removing more than 10 million cars off the road every year.

“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, we are supporting a more prosperous future for rural communities by speeding up the transition to clean energy while at the same time keeping monthly bills low and investing in the American workforce with new jobs and apprenticeships,” said Secretary Vilsack. “One in five rural Americans will benefit from these clean energy investments, thanks to partnerships with rural electric cooperatives like Dairyland. Put simply, this is rural power, for rural America.”

“The Inflation Reduction Act makes the largest investment in rural electrification since FDR and the New Deal in the 1930s,” said John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy. “Today’s awards will bring clean, affordable, reliable power to rural Americans all across our nation.”

These projects will create good-paying jobs, lower energy costs for rural communities, significantly reduce pollution, enhance the resiliency of the nation’s electric grid, and advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative. The 16 selectees will use New ERA funds to:

• Deliver cleaner, more affordable and more resilient electricity to approximately 5 million households across 23 states, representing 20% of the nation’s rural households, farms, businesses and schools. The states served by this set of selectees include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
• Support more than 4,500 permanent jobs and 16,000 construction jobs.
• Reduce pollution by 2.9 billion tons over the lifetime of the projects, or more than 43.7 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, equivalent to removing more than 10 million gasoline-powered cars off the road.
• Build or purchase over 10 gigawatts of clean energy – including 3,723 megawatts of wind, 4,733 megawatts of solar, 804 megawatts of nuclear and 357 megawatts of hydropower – and make enabling investments in transmission, substation upgrades, and distributed energy resource management software, lowering energy costs for rural Americans and enhancing grid resiliency, all of which will help meet growing electricity demand and power President Biden’s manufacturing renaissance.
• Build 1,892 megawatt hours of battery storage, which increases grid reliability and significantly reduces outage times for local customers.

The first round of selectees and the states they serve are as follows:

• Allegheny Electric Cooperative Inc., Pennsylvania and New Jersey
• Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Inc., Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico
• Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota
• Buckeye Power, Inc., Ohio
• CORE Electric Cooperative, Colorado
• Dairyland Power Cooperative, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota
• East Kentucky Power Cooperative, Kentucky
• Golden Valley Electric Association, Alaska
• Great River Energy, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin
• Hoosier Energy, Indiana and Michigan
• Minnkota Power Cooperative, North Dakota and Minnesota
• San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc., Texas
• Seminole Electric Cooperative, Inc., Florida
• Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Wyoming
• United Power, Colorado
• Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, Michigan

More information about these selections can be found here.

Funding for Dairyland Power Cooperative

Today’s announcement includes the first finalized award in the New ERA program: grant and loan funding of nearly $573 million to Dairyland Power Cooperative. Dairyland’s electric rates are estimated to be 42% lower over 10 years than they would have been without New ERA funding.

Dairyland Power Cooperative plans to leverage its funding for a total investment of $2.1 billion. Funding will be used to develop projects totaling 1,080 megawatts, including eight power purchase agreements, four solar installations and four wind power installations across Dairyland’s service territory.

Dairyland has a strong partnership with labor that will continue on in its New ERA projects, with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Northern Wisconsin Building and Construction Trades, Wisconsin Building Trades Council, and the Wisconsin Pipe Trades Association. The Dairyland New ERA project will also include a Farmer Benefit Plan and Union Engagement Plan, which it will co-design with stakeholders as part of a Community Benefit Plan that the cooperative will develop with support from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Clean Energy Community Initiative.

Investments from USDA Rural Development

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities, create jobs and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and healthcare; and high-speed internet access in rural, Tribal and high-poverty areas. Visit the Rural Data Gateway to learn how and where these investments are impacting rural America.

These investments made through the Inflation Reduction Act are powering the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to make USDA programs more inclusive, accessible and available to more people than ever before so that these benefits are felt for generations to come. Many of these programs are also part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which is advancing environmental justice by ensuring that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, and other investments reach disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

USDA expects to continue making New ERA and Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program awards in the coming months.