Trump administration releases $3.2B in federal funds for Colorado’s electric co-ops. There may be a catch.

The Trump administration has released $3.2 billion in funds for six Colorado rural electric cooperatives and the Tri-State Generation Transmission Association after a two-month freeze — with perhaps a catch.

The co-ops and Tri-State can stick with their original grant proposals or offer modifications to  their Empowering Rural America, or New ERA, loans and grants to comply with President Donald Trump’s Unleashing American Energy executive order.

“Applicants who wish to remove harmful DEIA and far-left climate features from project proposals have 30 days to propose project revisions,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture, whose Rural Utilities Service administers New ERA, said in its announcement that the funds had been released.

The administration froze the funds, part of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, for an administrative review by the Agriculture Department. “This course correction puts those investments back to work to support President Trump’s vision for energy independence and sets rural America on a path to lasting prosperity,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in the announcement. The notice does not say the co-ops must revise their plans.

An additional $626 million in other federal funds that were frozen for programs including home electrification rebates, weatherization, electric vehicle chargers and $156 million for the low-income “Solar for All” program are also flowing, according to the Colorado Energy Office.

“Colorado Solar for All funds have become accessible because of the current success of litigation filed by Colorado and other states challenging the Trump administration’s harmful and illegal federal funding freeze,” Ari Rosenblum, an energy office spokesman, said in an email.

“We are moving forward with developing the program, which will deliver the benefits of solar to more than 20,000 households living in Colorado,” Rosenblum said. “All other funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and most from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have also been made accessible as a result of this ongoing litigation.”

The New ERA funds slated for Colorado are mainly to aid with the transition to clean energy and to help close coal-fired power plants. Unleashing American Energy has a section entitled “terminating the green new deal.”

The “green new deal” was a 2021 resolution backed by progressive politicians such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, but it was not adopted.

Westminster-based Tri-State, which provides wholesale power to 41 cooperatives in four states including 16 in Colorado, received the largest of the New ERA awards, $2.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans.

The funding is to help finance the closing of 1,100 megawatts of coal-fired plants in Arizona, New Mexico and the Craig Station in Colorado.

Tri-State plans to use part of the money to build or purchase 1,380 megawatts of solar and wind generation and battery storage across its service territory, which includes rural portions of Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.

“Tri-State is glad to see that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has completed its review and is releasing funding for the New ERA Program,” Tri-State CEO Duane Highley said in a statement.  “We will be reviewing the USDA’s guidance and look forward to continuing our work through their process.”

Brighton-based United Power — the second largest co-op in the state, serving about 300,000 people in an area from Commerce City through Adams and Weld counties — received the second biggest award, $262 million.

The funding is earmarked to offset United Power’s cost of transitioning to a clean energy portfolio, including power purchase agreements for more than 760 megawatts of renewable resources.

“We were pleased to see the USDA’s announcement,” Trista Fugate, a United Power spokesperson, said in an email. “It is certainly a positive step forward for rural communities in Colorado.”

CORE Electric Cooperative, the state’s largest co-op, serving more than 375,000 residents in parts of 11 counties from west of Colorado Springs to east of Denver, is in line for $225 million for power purchase agreements for approximately 550 megawatts of wind, solar and battery storage.

“We have confirmation from the USDA that the funding is now released and we can continue to move forward with the process,” CORE spokesperson Amber King said in an email.

Other New Era funding released includes:

•  $50 million for  Yampa Valley Electric, located in Steamboat Springs, to procure 150 megawatts of solar energy and 75 megawatts of battery energy storage for northwestern Colorado and southwestern Wyoming.
• $13 million to Grand Valley Power, headquartered in Grand Junction, to purchase power from a Delta County solar project.
• $9.8 million to the  San Miguel Power Association, which serves parts of the southwestern corner of the state, for a solar facility in Montrose County.
• $9.7 million to Granby-based Mountain Parks Electric  as part of an agreement to receive $100 million over 20 years.

 “These projects will improve the resiliency of the electric grid in rural Colorado and will help co-ops provide reliable and affordable power,” Kent Singer, executive director of the Colorado Rural Electric Association, which represents 22 of the state’s co-ops, said in a statement.