Author:  CSG Staff      Published: 10/6/2022      CSG

Rural communities and Native nations are critical to ensuring durable and equitable climate action across the US. And recent federal activity on clean energy infrastructure, like the White House’s Justice40 Initiative, is fueling conversations on how to make funding opportunities more accessible to rural places. 

Adopting new clean energy systems is nuanced and requires a careful evaluation of the legacies of pollution, health, and disinvestment in rural and Indigenous communities. Increased funding will advance rural prosperity only if local and systems-level efforts center equitable economic development. 

With this funding boost and equity lenses in mind, we’ve written a short blog highlighting two ways recent climate and infrastructure policies offer exciting opportunities for rural:

• • One of the biggest emerging opportunities for rural places is the creation of a new clean energy workforce. Over half of the counties with high levels of clean energy employment are rural. Making a just and equitable transition means evaluating the current and future energy workforce to sustain ample labor support, equitable economic development, and environmental remediation. It also requires acknowledging the legacies of pollution and social determinants of health when addressing health equity in historically marginalized communities.

 

• The Inflation Reduction Act earmarks $369 billion to energy, security, and climate change programs. The plan gives families rebates and tax credits to weatherize their homes and purchase efficient appliances, heat pumps, and rooftop solar. It also provides a tax credit for up to $7,500 to buy any new or used electric vehicle made in America. As a new savings calculator shows, these incentives stand to benefit rural families.

READ THE BLOG

How to Apply the Wealth-Creation Framework 

What (and Who) Counts? Defining Rural Success features four well-respected rural development practitioners and thinkers. In the report, Shanna Ratner shares her perspective on wealth creation, inclusion, and resilience in rural: 

As we seek to create a more inclusive and resilient economy, we must re-examine the ties between urban and rural with an eye toward turning existing systems that exploit rural for the benefit of urban into systems that are reciprocal and mutually beneficial. One practical and applied framework for achieving realignment, economic inclusivity, and resilience at a regional
scale is the wealth creation framework.

Wealth-creation value chains, organized in and across specific sectors within regions (think manufacturing, food systems, forestry and wood products, tourism, housing, healthcare, etc.) build bridges between community and economic development by intentionally integrating economically marginalized people and places into the mainstream regional economy as business owners, employees, investors, and consumers. 

By changing the focus of economic progress from job creation to wealth creation and from individual business development or industry clusters to wealth-creation value chains as the fundamental unit of economic activity, we can elevate the value of rural within regions and restructure the ways in which that value is rewarded. We will shift our focus as we redefine “success’’, and we will accelerate the pace of positive adaptations.

EAD SHANNA’S PERSPECTIVE

Tools and Resources for the Field

Updated weekly: See our federal resource page for a list of federal opportunities for rural people and places.

• • The Pathways to Rural Prosperity Podcast is focused on providing strategies to empower community success and vitality. Hosted by e2 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems’ Don Macke, each episode will feature interviews with cutting-edge rural development thought leaders and community practitioners, remarkable entrepreneurs, including business, nonprofit, and government professionals, and the learnings of e2 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems.

 

• • Thought leadership on the CHIPS and Science ACT: Three Ways Congress Can Ensure a Little-Known CHIPS Act Program Benefits Rural Communities from Corianne Payton Scally and Anne N. Junod at the Urban Institute and The potential of the CHIPS and Science Act for rural America from Anthony F. Pipa and Zoe Swarzenski at The Brookings Institution.

 

• • Looks like we’re not the only ones making website improvements — don’t miss the new Rural Partners Network (RPN) site! RPN is an alliance of federal agencies and commissions working directly with rural communities to expand rural prosperity through job creation, infrastructure development, and community improvement.

 

• • October 12, 9-11 am CST webinar: Join the Rural Wisconsin Hospital Cooperative (RWHC) for a webinar exploring the effects of belonging and inclusivity on health outcomes and economic outcomes. We will learn more about the linkages among these topics and how other rural communities have successfully made their communities more welcoming.

 

• November 27 comment submission deadline: FHFA is proposing to amend its Enterprise Duty to Serve Underserved Markets regulation to add a definition of “colonia census tract,” which would serve as a census tract-based proxy for a “colonia,” and to amend the definition of “high-needs rural region” in the regulation by substituting “colonia census tract” for “colonia.” The proposed rule would also revise the definition of “rural area” in the regulation to include all colonia census tracts regardless of their location. These changes would make activities by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in all colonia census tracts eligible for Duty to Serve credit.