There are Grants
Cary Grant was born in Bristol, England in 1904 and is credited in over 77 movies from the 1930’s through the 1960’s. Some of his classic movies include “The Bishop’s Wife” and “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House”. Recently, I learned that he passed away in 1986 at a hospital in Davenport, IA, just 60 miles from my hometown. While I would love to go on and on about Cary Grant and the golden age of Hollywood, Cary is not the Grant that I intended to write about this month.
If you have followed the national news over the past few years, you may remember two pieces of legislation passed recently. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). Each of these pieces of legislation have grant opportunities that could benefit Union County Electric Cooperative.
On November 15, 2021, the $1 trillion BIL package was signed into law. Our national trade organization, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, has identified approximately $110 billion in the package as relevant to rural electric cooperatives.
The second program of interest that passed was the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. This legislation was passed and took effect on August 16, 2022. Approximately $391 billion of the IRA is set aside in this piece of legislation for energy projects.
Areas of interest for the electric sector in these packages include funding for projects that address cyber and physical security; electric vehicles; microgrids; natural hazards; and smart grids. The funds that might be of interest to us will likely come through a competitive grant process, meaning we will compete for the available funds against other similar projects.
Unfortunately, neither of these pieces of legislation will eliminate our ongoing infrastructure costs or the investment needed to upgrade portions of our systems. However, if we are able to receive some grant funds, it would help reduce the cost of providing reliable service to our members. We have already made inquiries about some of these opportunities and will continue to monitor these programs.
So, the next time you are up late at night and have a hard time falling asleep, you can either read thousands of pages regarding Federal grant opportunities and give me a call in the morning, or flip on one of the classic movies starring Cary Grant. May I suggest that latter, as it will be a much more enjoyable experience.
Until next month, stay safe and God bless.
Quote of the Month:
“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.” – Cary Grant, Actor