§918c Rural and remote communities electrification grants

Summary

The Secretary, after talking with the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, may give grants to eligible local groups in rural areas to make electric systems better. Grants can pay to increase energy efficiency, place or upgrade transmission and distribution lines, or to provide or modernize electric generation facilities that serve rural places. Grants must be chosen for cost-effectiveness and best use of money. Each year the money must be split 50/50 between the two purposes. When funding generation projects, renewable energy projects get priority. Congress authorized $20,000,000 for each fiscal year 2006 through 2012. Defined terms (one line each): eligible grantee — local governments, certain districts, and cooperatives in rural areas; incremental hydropower — extra power from efficiency gains at a dam that was in service before January 1, 2005 and improved after that date; renewable energy — electricity from renewable sources or hydrogen made from renewables; renewable energy source — wind, ocean waves, biomass, solar, landfill gas, incremental hydropower, livestock methane, or geothermal; rural area — a city, town, or place with 10,000 or fewer people.