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16 Rural Electric Cooperatives including those in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota will Leverage $7.3 Billion in Federal Funding to Deliver More Affordable, Reliable Electricity to Their Members
- Will help fund renewable energy projects totaling 1,400 megawatts across Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota
- Will reduce greenhouse gas pollution by an estimated 2.2 million tons annually (equivalent to the emissions from 522,000 gas-powered cars each year)
The first wave of 16 rural electric cooperatives (co-ops) selected to receive the USDA’s Empowering Rural America (New ERA) funding plan to leverage their awards to deploy carbon-free energy to help power 5 million homes in rural communities across 23 states, from California to Florida and Texas to Alaska. The majority of new electricity sources that will be funded are solar and wind power. These projects will decrease the cost to generate electricity for rural America, increase the resiliency for communities without sacrificing reliability, and lay the foundation for even more ambitious investments to come:
- USDA estimates these projects will avoid more than 43 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually (equivalent to the emissions from 10 million gas-powered cars each year).
- USDA estimates New ERA funding will spur the creation of an estimated 4,500 long-term jobs and 16,000 short-term jobs.
- As a result of these projects, renewable capacity supply for rural co-ops will increase by 35 percent from 26 to nearly 35 gigawatts, with wind and solar capacity rising by more than 60 percent from 14 gigawatts to 23 gigawatts.
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