READOUT: Senior Treasury Officials Visit the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to Tour Tribal Clean Energy Projects Supported by the Inflation Reduction Act and Announce Allocation Under State Small Business Credit Initiative

Anpetu Wi Wind Project To Power Around 100,000 Homes

FORT YATES, ND – Today, U.S. Treasurer Chief Lynn Malerba, General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Neil MacBride, and senior Treasury officials visited the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in Fort Yates, North Dakota.

Treasurer Chief Malerba and General Counsel MacBride joined representatives from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, including Chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Janet Alkire, and SAGE Development Authority, a Section 17 corporation chartered under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 acting as the Tribe’s public power authority, for a tour of the major clean energy projects around the reservation. They also discussed the 235 MW Anpetu Wi Wind Project that SAGE is pursuing, which will produce enough energy to power around 100,000 homes.

In the afternoon, Treasurer Chief Malerba and General Counsel MacBride joined a roundtable on the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA). The law is one of the largest investments in the American economy in a generation and the most significant legislation to combat climate change in U.S. history. As the lead agency implementing the IRA, the Treasury Department is engaged in extensive outreach and education efforts to support Tribal Energy projects.

The IRA was crafted to incentivize clean technology investments in areas outside the coasts that are historically underserved. For the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the IRA has the potential to combat historic unemployment and poverty rates on the reservation where, despite the Tribe’s best efforts, more than half remain unemployed and 40 percent of families live below the poverty line.

The IRA established a new credit delivery mechanism – elective pay (often called “direct pay”) – that enables tax-exempt entities like non-profits and Tribal governments to take advantage of clean energy tax credits for the first time, expanding the reach of those credits to help build projects more quickly and affordably, which will in turn create good-paying jobs and lower energy costs. Until the Inflation Reduction Act introduced this new credit delivery mechanism, Tribal governments could not fully benefit from tax credits like those that incentivize clean energy construction.

The Treasurer Chief Malerba and General Counsel MacBride also met with the Oyate Community Development Corporation and Tribal leadership to announce the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is approved for up to $3,576,734 in State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) Capital Program funding. The Tribe intends to use the funds to operate a single loan participation program (LPP). The LPP program will provide much-needed credit support for Tribal member-owned companies and is expected to support a variety of small businesses, including those in the food production, livestock, and agriculture industries. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe estimates that its programs will increase the number and development of small businesses on the Tribe’s reservation, provide greater economic opportunity for Tribal members through job creation and entrepreneurship, and assist the Tribe in its efforts to lower the poverty rate among its members. Treasurer Chief Malerba continues to support and meet Tribal nations across the country. 

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