US President Joe Biden has announced the biggest government funding move for rural electrification since the 1930s. $7.3 billion will go to 16 electric cooperatives in 23 states to build and expand clean energy, Biden said Monday.
The funds, which will come from the Inflation Reduction Act and are being awarded by the Department of Agriculture's Empowering Rural America program, are meant to provide reliable electricity and create jobs in clean energy.
Biden introduced the investment initiative at a stop in Westby, Wisconsin, where he said about $580 million will go to the Dairyland Power Cooperative to develop solar and wind power as well as energy storage. Biden said the nonprofit co-ops were specifically targeted because, "They don't have the same resources that private utility companies have to modernize their energy infrastructure. And for decades, they couldn't access tax credits to make clean energy more affordable."
Biden said the funding will help provide affordable electricity for more than 5 million homes and will create 20,000 jobs across the states chosen for the funding. In a briefing about the funding, the White House said those jobs will break down as about 4,500 permanent jobs and 16,000 construction jobs. The $7.3 billion will be supplemented by an additional $5.1 billion in private-sector investment, the administration said.
In addition to servicing areas where electrical power is scarce in the US, some electric cooperatives are the only means by which some areas can access high-speed broadband services. The renewable energy industry has struggled to communicate the benefits of clean power in rural communities, with skepticism over cost savings and job creation. Meanwhile, states such as California and Texas have been seeing the benefits of combining solar power with power storage to avert blackouts and to create enough energy as coal plants go offline.