White House announces $7.3 billion for clean energy in rural America
President Biden announced $7.3 billion in funding for clean energy projects at 16 rural electric cooperatives, part of the largest federal investment in rural electrification since the New Deal. The projects, at co-ops from Florida to Alaska, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by harnessing wind, solar, and hydropower and buying power from a now-idle nuclear plant in Michigan.
The first rural electric cooperative (REC) to receive $573 million was the Dairyland Power Cooperative, situated in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The Empowering Rural America Program was funding the other RECs to reward them with grants. When all 16 projects are finished, 10 gigawatts of clean energy will be produced, and 43.7 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent of 10 million automobiles' worth of emissions would be prevented or reduced annually. 750,000 houses can have electricity supplied by one gigawatt. To acquire 1,080 megawatts of renewable energy from four wind farms and four solar farms located in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota, Dairyland intends to combine private sector finance with federal support. Electric rates for customers would be 42% lower than they would be without the funding from the Empowering Rural America Program, also known as New ERA, and greenhouse gas emissions would be lower by 3 million tons a year.
