Two years after it was signed into law, the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, is proving to be a historic game changer for rural Colorado’s energy economy. If you had told me five years ago Colorado’s second largest power provider, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, would be awarded $2.5 billion in federal grants and loans to help cut energy costs and accelerate its move to clean energy, I would not have believed you.
In September, we learned the utility would be awarded $679 million in direct funds through the USDA’s New ERA grant program. Then, on Oct. 25, we learned that those funds would be stretched to a total of $2.5 billion to Tri-State via the program’s low- and zero-interest loans. These resources will have a tremendous impact on Tri-State’s ability to retire burdensome debt, close coal plants and become a true leader in rural America’s renewable energy future.
In 2019, Tri-State was still…
