The USDA will invest $464 million to strengthen electric service in rural communities through smart-grid technology and help agricultural producers and businesses add renewable energy systems to lower energy costs and build climate-smart energy capacity in 48 states and Puerto Rico, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced yesterday.
“USDA continues to prioritize climate-smart infrastructure to help rural America build back better, stronger, and more equitably than ever before,” Vilsack said. “We recognize that lowering energy costs for small businesses and agricultural producers helps to expand economic development and employment opportunities for people in America’s rural towns and communities.”
In North Dakota, for example, Red Trail Energy LLC will use a $25 million loan to build a carbon-capture processing and storage facility at an ethanol plant. The project will provide a 40 percent to 50 percent reduction in the carbon intensity score of the ethanol the company produces. It also will enable Red Trail to distribute ethanol to markets with low-carbon fuel standards.