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Solar coming to town? Interested in learning some of the ways communities can advocate for themselves? Join us on October 9th to talk about Community Benefit Agreements and how you can help minimize detrimental effects and maximize benefits. 

Driven in part by historic investments in infrastructure through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, a wave of new development is sweeping the country. With these historic investments many Federal agencies have adopted Community Benefit Plans as a critical component of their award making strategies. 

Community Benefit Plans are an emerging concept being used by communities and project developers to ensure that community concerns are accounted for and that communities truly benefit from a proposed project. For rural communities, this is an opportunity to create a Community Benefit Plan with new energy development.

The clean energy transition will be rural economic transition and it is critical to its success that rural communities maximize the benefit resulting from that transition. On Oct 9th, former Rural Utility Service Clean Energy Benefits Advisor, Erik Hatlestad will share a presentation on Community Benefits Plans with the membership Wisconsin Farmers Union. The presentation will introduce the concept of Community Benefit Plans and Farmer Benefit Plans, introduce how different federal agencies conceive of Community Benefit Plans, and examine some noteworthy examples of successful Community Benefit Plans from across the country. 

Erik Hatlestad is a lifelong resident of rural, western Minnesota who grew up on a family farm with a commitment to the cooperative movement. For the last 11 years Erik has been working on the clean energy transition at rural electric cooperatives at an organization called CURE. During that time his work has led to historic investments in rural electrification through the New ERA and PACE programs passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. In 2024 Erik served as an advisor to the Rural Utility Service helping developing the USDA’s first Community Benefit Plan framework. In addition to his professional work Erik is also a County President in Minnesota Farmers Union and the founder and board chair of a newly opened cooperative grocery store.

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Are you interested in joining us for the rest of our WFU Lunch and Learn series? Learn more and register for the following events. 

• October 16 – Sharing the Bounty: Building Blocks for Cooperative Endeavors
• October 23 –Parliamentary Procedure
• October 30 – Civility and Civil Discourse