Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack made a series of energy infrastructure announcements Wednesday, including the first grants under an Inflation Reduction Act effort to stand up renewable energy projects in rural America.
Speaking to members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association at the group’s annual convention, Vilsack announced $2.2 billion in Electric Infrastructure Loans and another $139 million under the Powering Affordable Clean Energy Program, the first funding to be distributed under PACE.
Vilsack said the projects receiving funding “understand the significance of investing in clean energy, lower energy costs, a cleaner environment, good paying jobs being created, and expanding economic opportunity, because communities that can provide lower cost energy are communities that will attract new business opportunity.”
Vilsack also noted there are “many, many awards more yet to come.”
The $139 million in PACE funding is split among five projects that will invest in disadvantaged and Tribal communities in Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii and a pair of efforts in Nebraska. Last year, USDA announced the availability of $1 billion in PACE funding, and Vilsack said USDA received “12 times the amount of available resources in applications.”
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The $2.2 billion in EIL investments will go to loans and loan guarantees for 39 projects in 21 states. The largest allocation is a $317.4 million loan that will build and improve nearly 1,100 miles of power lines for an electric cooperative that serves a seven-county area in central Florida. Another $281.9 million will go to Georgia for work on 745 miles of line that will connect more than 25,000 consumers. Two other efforts also clear the $200 million mark: a $203.4 million project in South Dakota and a $210.8 million Texas project.
EIL investments will be made in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, Texas and Wisconsin.
Vilsack also told NRECA members the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program was also dealing with oversubscription issues; the $9.7 billion program received about $47 billion in requests. Vilsack said USDA is currently working with interested electric cooperatives on their applications with the goal of awarding funding over the next two months.
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