Christopher Schuler, christopher.schuler@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC – Today, the White House and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it was preparing to release $7.3 billion in Empowering Rural America (New ERA) grants and loans for the first 16 rural electric cooperatives selected as finalists. The New ERA program will fund investments in renewable energy, storage, transmission, and large-scale emissions reductions. This funding will allow these leading electric cooperatives—serving one-fifth of rural Americans—to accelerate the adoption of affordable and reliable clean energy, improving resilience and lowering costs for their members.
This $9.7 billion New ERA program, created by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, represents the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936.
The projects that will be funded by this program will drive an estimated $29 billion in new clean energy investments across 23 states. The first tranche of projects funded by New ERA will result in 10 gigawatts of clean energy—enough to power 3.5 million homes—including an estimated 3,700 MW of wind and 4,700 MW of solar. A list of awarded and selected recipients can be found here.
“These investments are a real turning point for rural America’s relationship with clean energy. With the help of the Inflation Reduction Act, these utilities are taking monumental steps to ensure their cooperatives are competitive, resilient, and clean,“ said Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous. “These grants and loans awarded through the New ERA program will anchor rural clean energy jobs, improve health outcomes for families and communities, and further reduce our reliance on expensive, deadly fossil fuels.”
The partnership between Sierra Club and Bloomberg Philanthropies has been instrumental in the creation and implementation of this initiative, supporting USDA, rural electric cooperatives, and rural communities to ensure the equitable advancement of clean energy across the country.
“Empowering our local and rural communities to tap into the historic levels of federal funding available is a critical piece of how we accelerate clean energy adoption, improve public health, and meet our climate goals,” said Antha Williams, who leads the Environment program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “The USDA's New ERA program will ensure that rural electric cooperatives can invest in clean energy all while improving reliability and lowering costs. Bloomberg Philanthropies is proud to support this initiative and ongoing efforts by the Biden-Harris Administration to advance a just and equitable clean energy transition."
Last September, USDA announced that the New ERA program received applications for the program from 157 rural cooperatives across 40 states and Puerto Rico. Together, those clean energy plans represented cooperative interest in investments of more than $93 billion across 750 clean energy projects.
“The New ERA program and the selected investments announced today are game changers for rural electric utilities. This funding, combined with new tax credits, really starts to level the playing field on clean energy for member-owned cooperatives,” said Jeremy Fisher, Sierra Club’s Principal Advisor for Climate and Energy. “During the application period for New ERA, we saw unprecedented interest from cooperatives ready to move the needle, and the bulk of these announced recipients are really showing us creative, impactful programs in renewable energy, storage, and transmission. This program helps ensure that rural America will not only host, but drive and benefit from the clean energy transition. We’re excited to support leading cooperatives and the communities that they serve as they navigate this new space.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.