OMAHA (DTN) -- President Joe Biden and his administration are championing new investments in rural energy as the president travels to Wisconsin on Thursday to announce $7.3 billion in rural electric grants and loans.
The president will visit Westby, a town in southwestern Wisconsin, with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to announce grants and loans that will go to fund projects for 16 rural electric cooperatives across 23 states for wind, solar, nuclear and hydropower.
The funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is "the largest investment in rural electrification," since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, administration officials said Wednesday on a call with reporters.
Biden had visited the same town in 2021. He will use his return visit to make the case that his economic strategy has boosted the country's economy by investing in infrastructure such as renewable energy through the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill.
"The bottom line is thousands of cities and towns all across America are seeing the great American comeback story -- whether they're in red states or blue -- all part of what we're calling an Invest(ing) in America agenda," Biden said at a White House event Tuesday.
The president and Vilsack aren't the only ones touring the country to spotlight initiatives and funding from the IRA. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will hold a roundtable on job training for electric vehicles in North Carolina. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also is visiting with union workers in Michigan on Friday.
Wisconsin, North Carolina and Michigan are each critical swing states that will be critical in the November election.
RURAL INVESTMENT DETAILS
Vilsack on Wednesday's call said the rural power investment will "bring the promise of clean energy and lower costs to approximately 5 million rural households," as well as farms and businesses in those 23 states.
The $7.3 billion under USDA's Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program and the Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program -- both created with IRA dollars -- will leverage $29 billion in private investment.
The combined projects will generate 10 gigawatts of clean energy -- wind, solar, nuclear and hydropower. Among the projects funded will be a 1,900-megawatt battery storage project.
The projects are expected to create 16,000 construction jobs and another 4,500 permanent jobs, administration officials said.
Hitting on another Biden administration focus, Vilsack said the clean-energy projects would result in annually reducing 43.7 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Vilsack talked about the Dairyland Power Cooperative in Wisconsin, which will receive a $471 million USDA grant and a $102 million loan. The funds will go to purchase and finance four solar projects and four wind projects, Vilsack said, with a total project cost of more than $2 billion. Once built out, the projects are projected to lower electrical costs for Dairyland customers by nearly 42%.
Vilsack also took the opportunity to note Republicans in Congress have moved to cut IRA dollars at USDA as well as making an effort to shift those funds from the New ERA and PACE programs to other spending priorities in the House farm bill.
"There are some in Congress who are suggesting that we need to condense the timeframe for when these projects need to be completed and to in a sense take some resources away from the Inflation Reduction Act in order to reinvest in other farm bill programs," Vilsack said. "I'm really deeply concerned about that because you can see the power of the New Era Program and the PACE program and the opportunity for us over the next seven years to make investments and real jobs grow and real economic opportunity."
HARRIS AND TRUMP
The president's push to tout his legislative achievements and visits to swing states align with Harris' campaign to emphasize a transition to clean energy technology. As noted in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, Harris has flipped her stance to say she no longer supports a ban on fracking.
In her interview last week with CNN, Harris mentioned her support of the "Green New Deal," saying "the climate crisis is real" requiring lower emission metrics and deadlines to meet them. Harris also championed the IRA, saying there will be "probably a trillion dollars over the next 10 years" invested in clean energy.
"What I have seen is that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking," Harris told CNN.
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance have said Harris' policies will force every American to drive an electric car. Trump said in August that there isn't enough electricity to power all the electric cars.
Trump said his administration would roll back on the Biden-Harris clean energy push and boost fossil fuel production. Speaking last week in Michigan, Trump said he would declare a national emergency to boost energy production and allow both new drilling and new power plants by cutting red tape.
"My goal will be to cut your energy costs in half within 12 months of taking office," Trump said in Michigan.
POLITICKING OVER INVESTMENT, INFLATION
Natalie Quillian, the White House deputy chief of staff, said on Wednesday's call that the Biden-Harris presidency sought to come out of the pandemic by "rejecting conventional wisdom" of offering tax credits to corporations "that ship jobs overseas" and instead invest federal dollars back into infrastructure that creates American jobs. That has led to "the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration over the last 50 years." The administration also made historic investments in manufacturing and renewable energy, she said.
"We're building a clean-energy economy that is lowering costs for millions of American families and businesses," Quillian said.
Meanwhile, Republicans have hammered the Biden-Harris team over inflation with the price of average goods up roughly 20% compared to 2020, which was the peak of the pandemic.
Food prices are up about 22% since 2020 while gas prices, which bottomed out at $2.17 a gallon during the pandemic lockdowns, peaked at a national average topping $5 a gallon in June 2022, Gas prices now average $3.31 nationally but that's down 50 cents from a year ago, according to AAA.
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., at a forum last week said costs are up an average $13,000 for American families under Biden.
"We all feel it," Ricketts said at Nebraska State Fair event, adding, "This administration has been the administration of high prices and open borders."
Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com
Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN
(c) Copyright 2024 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.