2023-05-16 10:10:02
The United States Department of Agriculture announced an investment of nearly $11 billion to help bring affordable clean energy to rural populations across the country.
Rural electric cooperatives, renewable energy companies and power companies will be able to apply for financing through two programs, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at a news conference Monday.
Vilsack said this is the largest one-time investment by the federal government in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936 as part of the “New Deal,” a set of welfare programs to counter the effects of the Great Depression.
“This is an exciting opportunity for the Rural Utilities Service to work collaboratively with our great partners, rural electric cooperatives, to advance a clean energy future for rural America,” said Vilsack. “So this is an exciting and historic day, and continues an ongoing effort to ensure that rural America is a full participant in this clean energy economy.”
The Empowering Rural America (ERA) program will provide $9.7 billion to rural electric cooperatives to create renewable, emission-neutral energy systems and carbon dioxide capture mechanisms.
Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, welcomed the government’s investment.
“This is an exciting and transformative opportunity for co-ops and their local communities, especially as we look to a future that depends on electricity to power more of our economy,” Matheson said. The Department of Agriculture, he added, “has intelligently structured this program in a way that helps electric cooperatives employ new tools to reduce costs and keep energy affordable while meeting the future energy needs of their rural populations.”
The Powering Affordable Clean Energy program will offer $1 billion in partially forgivable loans to renewable energy companies and electric utilities to help finance renewable energy projects such as large geothermal, solar and wind projects.
The goal is to provide affordable clean energy to vulnerable, disadvantaged or indigenous communities, the Department of Agriculture noted. But there are frictions between the goal of building clean energy infrastructure and how to source the minerals needed for that infrastructure.
For example, conservationists and indigenous communities in Nevada have gone to court to block the opening of the largest planned mine in the United States to extract lithium used in electric vehicle batteries.
Asked regarding tribal concerns over mineral extraction, Vilsack said Monday there would be “meaningful tribal consultation” on mining projects on land controlled by his agency. When asked what would happen if an indigenous community opposed a mining project, he declined to answer the question, which he characterized as hypothetical.
Rural electric cooperatives can apply for loans, grants and loan modifications through the Empowering Rural America program between July 31 and August 31. The application period for the Powering Affordable Clean Energy program is from June 30 to September 29.
Experts told The Associated Press that these programs might have a significant impact for rural areas of the country. “The ERA program has the potential to help rural electric cooperatives and municipal cooperatives move toward lower-carbon electricity production,” said Felix Mormann, a Texas A&M University law professor and legal and policy specialist. energetic.
The programs will have a relatively smaller impact on expanding power supply in rural populations than the “New Deal” project, said Carl Kitchens, an associate professor of economics at Florida State University.
“When it was passed in the 1930s, barely 10% of farms had electric power. By 1950 it had risen to over 90%,” Kitchens said. “Today electricity is almost universal except for a few small points and areas of reserve territory.”
Funding for the new programs comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, which has generated hundreds of billions of dollars for the transition to renewable energy and environmental recovery. The Biden administration announced details in February regarding how states and nonprofit organizations might apply for part of $27 billion in funding from a “green bank.” The following month, authorities announced $2 billion to create the Rural Energy Program for America.
Since the beginning of the year, hundreds of millions of dollars have been announced in aid to transition to renewable energy and reduce the consumption of planet-warming fossil fuels, as well as for environmental recovery and climate change mitigation projects in poor or disadvantaged communities. color.
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Drew Costley is on Twitter as: @drewcostley.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Media and Education Group. AP is solely responsible for all its content.
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