Biden-era grant for western Wisconsin renewable project continues under Trump

A $595 million grant award for a western Wisconsin power cooperative has been affirmed by the Trump administration after being announced by former President Joe Biden last year.

That’s according to the Dairyland Power Cooperative, which announced that President Donald Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins affirmed the award for the coop’s members and rural communities. The New Empowering Rural America grant was announced September 2024.

Since January, the president cut programs introduced by Biden and said it was an effort to reduce wasteful government spending. Trump’s promises to cut programs raised alarms for the construction and clean energy sector, particularly for organizations using tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act for solar and other renewable projects.

Working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the coop will pursue more than 1,000 megawatts of power purchase agreements for clean energy projects in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin, Dairyland officials said. The ERA award will create job opportunities, support economic development and create new tax revenue sources for communities, officials added.

Dairyland officials said the grant will have additional benefits such as making transmission infrastructure projects easier, making the coop’s transition to clean energy quicker and more affordable and accelerating the organization’s sustainability goals.

“In alignment with President Trump’s policy of unleashing American energy and natural resources, New ERA empowers rural America by allowing Dairyland to diversify resources and finance key transmission projects needed to support growth in rural areas,” said Brent Ridge, president and CEO of Dairyland, in a statement. “Dairyland strives every day to restore American prosperity and improve quality of life in the communities we serve, and we are excited to proceed with this incredible opportunity,” he added.

The cooperative sent a letter of interest for New ERA funding in September 2023 and was invited to proceed with the full application process in 2024, coop officials said. The coop received the funding award from the USDA in September 2024, officials added.

The New ERA program was supported by the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed in August 2022. The program “invests $9.7 billion to help member-owned rural electric cooperatives provide their communities with clean, reliable, and affordable energy,” the White House said in September 2024.

The Biden administration said the New ERA program was the largest investment in the electric system in Rural America since the New Deal in 1936.