Powering Rural Economic Development with Renewables

This policy brief by RMI argues that federal incentives are necessary to help electric cooperatives (co-ops) retire aging coal plants and transition to renewable energy, which would drive significant economic development in rural US communities.

• Electric cooperatives serve a critical role in rural America, including over 90 percent of counties characterized by persistent poverty, yet they have generally been slower than other utilities to retire coal plants.
• Several structural and financial barriers hinder the transition to clean energy for G&T co-ops, including their nonprofit status which limits access to tax credits, the use of coal plants as collateral for debt, and a preference for asset ownership over third-party power purchase agreements.
• Federal policy, such as the American Jobs Plan, could accelerate the transition by providing incentives for replacing coal capacity with renewables. RMI estimates that a $10 billion federal investment would generate over $50 billion in economic development revenues from wind and solar, representing a five-fold return.
• Replacing co-op coal generation with wind and solar could provide substantial state-level economic benefits. For example, Arkansas and North Dakota could see $4.8 billion and $4.2 billion respectively; the retirement of the Cardinal plant in Ohio could contribute nearly $2 billion; and the Seminole plant in Florida could generate $2.3 billion.

APA

RMI (2021). Powering Rural Economic Development with Renewables. https://rmi.org/resources/powering-rural-economic-development-with-renewables/

Chicago

RMI. Powering Rural Economic Development with Renewables. 2021. https://rmi.org/resources/powering-rural-economic-development-with-renewables/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Powering Rural Economic Development with Renewables |date=22 July 2021 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/powering-rural-economic-development-with-renewables/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2021powering, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Powering Rural Economic Development with Renewables}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2021}, month = jul, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/powering-rural-economic-development-with-renewables/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }