The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Friday that it will award more than $3 billion in grants to seven rural electric cooperatives as part of its Empowering Rural America program. Nearly $2.5 billion is going to the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. The Tri-State Power Generation and Transmission Association is a nonprofit clean energy provider that supplies power to 41 local electric utilities throughout the American West and Midwest. More than $1 billion is going to six other cooperatives, including suppliers serving Minnesota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas.
The investment is part of a total of $6.4 billion in funding aimed at generating 1.75 gigawatts of clean energy for rural areas, while reducing greenhouse gas production by 6.4 million tons.
As part of the financing, Tri-State Generation has agreed to reduce electricity rates by an estimated 10% over the next 10 years for the rural Americans it serves, resulting in an estimated $430 million in savings. Electricity charges are saved. It will also help offset the previously announced 1,100 megawatts of coal-fired power generation from Tri-State Generation, which will reduce pollution by 5.8 million tons per year.
“Across the country, rural electric cooperatives play a critical role in providing reliable energy sources to rural communities,” White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said in a statement. “By helping rural cooperatives upgrade their infrastructure and invest in newer, lower-cost, clean power projects, these investments will continue to make the difference for far too long due to the challenges of power delivery in remote communities. It will benefit local families and businesses that have faced unreasonably high energy costs.”
The announcement comes as the Biden administration aims to start clean energy production in communities that have previously relied on coal mines to drive their economies, with a $428 million grant to accelerate clean energy production in 15 rural areas. This comes less than a week after announcing the dollar funding. The initiative is expected to create 1,900 jobs in the energy sector to offset losses from coal mining.
More than $10 billion spent on rural America in two months
The $3 billion funding is the second such effort closed in the past two months.
In September 2024, the Biden administration added $7.3 billion in funding through the New ERA program to 16 electric cooperatives from the West Coast to the East Coast serving 23 U.S. states. The funding will support more than 4,500 permanent jobs, more than 16,000 construction jobs, and more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy to reduce pollution.
The U.S. government has committed $90 billion to closing the broadband gap in rural America, where millions of Americans still lack access to fast, reliable internet.
