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Join us on Sept. 6 for Final USDA New ERA Webinar

Join us for a final USDA New ERA webinar on Wednesday, September 6, at 3 PM ET with Senior USDA staff on the $9.7B New ERA program to discuss final questions, latest FAQs, and next steps for letters of interest and applications.

Key Funding Monitoring Updates

We've been working hard to identify the best options for your organization to pursue. These are the top three we're watching that have action items in the upcoming month. Please reach out if you'd like to talk!

USDA New ERA Program

The USDA RUS New ERA letters of interest are due on September 15, and BEL continues to assist stakeholders who are putting the finishing touches on billions' worth of letters of interest. Recently, USDA underscored in a new FAQ accessible here that ensuring smaller-scale US farmers see benefits from USDA investments is a priority for the Department. Strategies to achieve this include creating ongoing revenue streams for small-scale farmers from energy production revenue or land leases (in addition to lower energy prices). If you have the ability to include a sentence or two in your LOI in cases where benefits will go to local farmers, it is something that may be relevant to USDA. BEL would be happy to discuss strategies for incorporating community benefits into your letters of interest.

DOE Energy Future Grants – New Opportunity to Join BEL Application Cohort

BEL is looking to bring together city, town, and municipal electric and cooperative stakeholders to apply for a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of State and Community Energy Programs Energy Future Planning Grant. We have heard from you all that enhanced collaboration on grid infrastructure upgrades would be useful, especially when done in a way that meets local community-owned utility priorities and assists with technology planning to help with electrification, demand flexibility, and resilience and reliability projects, such as microgrids. Please let us know if you’d be interested in joining the application cohort by emailing info@be-league.org. We’re looking to submit an application by September 30.

DOE 40101(d) Grid Resilience State and Tribal Grants

More than half of US states have been allocated funding for resilience and are setting up their programs to disperse funds. Here is the information on what was allocated to your state. BEL is working with small utilities and Tribal entities to secure funding under this program. If you need assistance and expertise on this program, please reach out to info@be-league.org.

BEL’s Weatherization/Electrification Together (W/E Together) Initiative Continues to Expand

Over the next two years, thanks to generous funding from the Wells Fargo Foundation, BEL's W/E Together Initiative is growing, with an expanded focus in Minnesota. Existing programs in Georgia and California will scale up their efforts, and additional regional efforts continue to emerge as federal rebates for home electrification roll out across the country. 

W/E Together aims to collaborate with local utilities and a community of efficiency experts and manufacturers to create a nationally scalable program to address the challenge of improving the efficiency of single-family homes. Every W/E Together deep home energy retrofit will combine weatherization – repairs and upgrades to the building envelope – with electrification-readiness and appliance upgrades inside the home, enabling significant reductions in energy consumption.

BEL worked closely with Anza Electric Cooperative (CA) and Flint Energies (GA) in 2022 to build replicable W/E Together program models that leverage federal and state funding, including the Inflation Reduction Act’s High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate (HEEHR) Program. See recently released rules for HEEHRA.

The program is now expanding across the country and will focus on cost-effective improvements for low- and moderate-income rural households in disadvantaged rural communities. If you are interested in participating in this program, please reach out to us.

BEL In the News: Direct Pay and Home Rebate Program Begin to Roll Out

In case you missed it, Utility Dive and Canary Media included BEL CEO Keith Dennis in coverage of the Direct Pay Tax Guidance and Home Energy Efficiency and Electrification Rebate Programs. 

“Most people don’t have money set aside for when their water heater goes out or their furnace goes out, let alone to plan ahead,” he said. But the families his organization has helped to weatherize their homes and replace aging electric resistance and propane heat with modern heat pumps “were huddling around their space heaters, feeling uncomfortable, spending too much on energy — and it’s completely turned things around for them.” 

BEL Welcomes New Staff to the Team!

BEL is excited to announce the addition of two new team members: Anita Moreno, who is joining us after 16 years with Flint Energies, an electric cooperative in Georgia, and Doug Fitzmorris, who is joining us from the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.

Anita joins us as a Director. She spent 16 years in the electrical utility industry with Flint Energies in central Georgia. While at Flint, she started her career directly under the VP of Corporate Services as an Organizational Coordinator. Most recently, Anita served as the Director of Member Advocacy. In this role, she worked closely with local CAPs and other agencies, finding resources to help Flint’s members pay for their utilities at an average of $1.5M/year. She also helped pilot the first fuel switch home in Georgia through W/E Together.

Doug joins us as a Beneficial Electrification Analyst, providing support to the BEL team by assisting with many different projects across the organization. Prior to joining BEL, he worked at the Department of Energy's EIA branch as an Electricity Analyst supporting electrical power plant frame management through research and data collection related to US renewable energy power projects.

Read more about the BEL team.

Consider Becoming a BEL Member-Sponsor 

BEL provides a unique platform for collaboration and information sharing among the diverse sectors engaged in the energy transition. In the last year, BEL has added dozens of new member-sponsors, including a growing number of municipal utilities. By joining as a member-sponsor, your organization can:  



• Amplify your voice to help shape state and federal policy priorities 
• Learn from other utility professionals deploying new technologies and programs 
• Access information on policy initiatives and opportunities 
• Access current research on electrification 
• Increase visibility of your utility’s innovation and programs 

If you can't join in 2023, please budget for engaging in 2024!

For information on sponsorship of BEL, please click below.

BEL is a 501(c)3 organization with Silver status as a charitable organization on Guidestar.