Christopher Schuler, christopher.schuler@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC – Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the finalization of $4.37 billion in clean energy investments stemming from Empowering Rural America (New ERA) grants and loans at 10 large rural electric cooperatives. The New ERA program funds 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. With today’s announcement, 15 cooperatives serving more than 5.3 million rural electric customers have secured New ERA financing.
The 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. In September, USDA announced $7.3 billion in funding to the first 16 cooperatives selected as finalists. Today, 30 cooperatives have either secured funding or have been announced as finalists.
The loans and grants announced today will go to 10 cooperatives based in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska and Texas. The investments will support at least 5,000 jobs and reduce climate pollution by over 11 million tons each year. In addition to the announcement of secured funding, USDA also announced new finalists in Louisiana, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
“The New ERA awards announced earlier this year show that this program can and will be a remarkable success in ensuring that rural America helps lead our clean energy future. Today’s announcement only further highlights the great demand for lower costs and a cleaner environment,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous. “The investments made by the Biden administration will create good jobs, protect public health, and reduce our reliance on increasingly costly fossil fuels. That’s a huge win for our future.”
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.
In total, the New ERA program received applications 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.
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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.