The Rural Electrification Administration Program was established by executive order in 1935 and given statutory footing by the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, as a New Deal effort to extend electric power to rural areas of the United States that private utility companies had judged unprofitable to serve. Rather than building generation and distribution itself, the agency primarily made low-interest loans to newly formed, member-owned rural electric cooperatives, which then built the local distribution lines to reach farms and small towns. Within about two decades the share of American farms with electric service rose from roughly ten percent to near universal coverage, and the cooperative model the program fostered continues to serve large areas of rural America today.
Facts
Project TypeNational Energy Initiative 1 StatusThe original federal agency operated until 1994, when its functions were folded into the Rural Utilities Service; the electrification it achieved is permanent 2 ScaleExtended electric service to several million American farms that lacked it, raising rural electrification from roughly 10 percent to near-universal coverage over about two decades 2 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. United States Department of Energy Official Site
2. Encyclopedia Britannica
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