Rural electrical cooperatives in the United States have come a long way from being labeled “anti-American,” now securing US$7.3 billion in clean energy investments from the Biden-Harris administration to create jobs, cut emissions, and lower costs.
“The reality is the savings to our members will be more than US$130 million,” said Brent Ridge, president and CEO of the Wisconsin-based Dairyland Power Cooperative, which stands to receive $580 million to develop and purchase solar power, wind power, and energy storage.
President Joe Biden made the announcement during an early September visit to Wisconsin. The funding—which is available through the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program established under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—will go to 16 recipients over 23 states. It’s meant to leverage more than $29 billion in private investments, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reports.
The White House says the New ERA funding represents the biggest federal investment in U.S. rural energy infrastructure since the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, adopted as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
At the time, the 1936 Act had a profound impact on rural areas, helping to distribute electricity beyond cities to supply the country’s food producers. Farmers were able to band together to receive low-interest loans and establish electrical co-ops that they owned and operated. In that era, for-profit power companies pushed back, labelling the cooperatives “socialist” and “anti-American”—terms that, 85 years later, are once again being wielded by the Trump-Vance campaign to describe the energy policies of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Dairyland, as one of the recipients, plans to use the funds for power purchase agreements for solar and wind energy installations—including 593 megawatts of wind, 427 MW of solar, and 60 MW of energy storage—in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. The cooperative estimates the New ERA funding will cut its members’ electric rates by 42% over 10 years, while delivering power to about 240,000 homes and reducing carbon emissions by 70%.
Another recipient, the Allegheny Electric Cooperative Inc. operating in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, will use the grant to generate 80% of its power requirements using carbon-free resources by 2026 and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 100,000 tons each year.
And Hoosier Energy, which has 760,000 consumers across 18 electric cooperatives in Indiana and Illinois, will use the funding to help procure 369 megawatts of carbon-free nuclear energy and 250 megawatts of renewable energy. The cooperative expects this will create nearly 800 short- and long-term jobs and cut over 4.1 million tons of emissions each year.
Overall, the White House says, the 16 funded projects will supply more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy and help cut and avoid at least 43.7 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, an amount equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road every year.
“The New ERA program showcases what is possible when the government prioritizes voluntary, flexible decision-making and allows electric co-ops to take a tailored approach to respond to local needs,” wrote National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson.
