Trump’s rural energy freeze hits Midwest, GOP districts hardest

This story was originally published by Canary Media Ongoing delays and disruptions to a federal rural potency scheme threaten to disproportionately impact Midwest farmers and Republican congressional districts experts say For more than two decades the Rural Ability for America Effort REAP has helped thousands of farmers install solar energy-efficient grain dryers biodigesters wind turbines and other cost-saving clean vitality improvements Since Illinois has benefited more than any other state with over million in REAP grants according to federal figures obtained by the Chicago-based Environmental Law Plan Center through a community records request Minnesota Iowa Michigan and Ohio are also in the top states receiving grants during that period REAP proponents say the numbers show what s at stake as the initiative faces chaos and uncertainty under the Trump administration It s popular with all different stripes not just political stripes any type of farmer announced Lloyd Ritter who helped draft the plan as senior counsel for former Sen Tom Harkin D-Iowa It could be poultry corn soybeans wheat everybody benefits because the operation is so flexible and innovative you can utilize the undertaking for your type of demands in your area Related Conservative clean capacity advocates keep Trump s rhetoric at arm s length Carmen Fernholz and his wife are among the success stories The couple has run an organic farm in Minnesota for more than years Last summer Fernholz used a REAP grant to install a -kilowatt solar array It powers everything on the farm from the electric lawnmower to the heating and over the last year he s earned an additional a month on average by sending electricity on the grid back to his rural electric cooperative Since REAP has provided more than billion for more than solar projects making up about of the total REAP dollars More than million went to resource efficiency including for windows lighting heating and efficient grain driers Millions more were awarded for biogas biomass biofuels wind capacity hydroelectric power and other projects This has created crucial potency savings and revenue for farmers as well as vital business for solar developers energy-efficiency auditors and various types of contractors Farmers raising livestock and poultry and growing corn soy and other crops are the greater part common recipients of REAP but funds have also gone to small rural businesses including distilleries breweries a car wash a mental healthcare clinic a newspaper publisher and a moving company More than of the grants went to congressional districts represented by Republicans Ritter noted that REAP was a deeply bipartisan effort from the start led by both Harkin and former Republican Sen Richard Lugar of Indiana These are their voters Ritter stated of Republican leaders The thing that is so great about REAP is it lowers capacity costs and saves farmers money which ties into the Trump administration agriculture secretary s contemporary announcements about building rural prosperity and farm guard REAP s IRA boost is likely to end under GOP The activity was turbocharged by the Inflation Reduction Act IRA Under the federal Farm Bill REAP grants covered up to of a project s costs The IRA created an additional funding source and allowed grants to cover up to of a project s cost More than billion in REAP grants have been promised or obligated under IRA in just the past two years while since Farm Bill REAP grants have totaled million More than of the IRA REAP grants totaling million were awarded to solar projects more than of them nationwide Those arrays are expected to generate over gigawatt-hours of clean resource annually according to the federal statistics REAP grants are paid as reimbursement after a project is completed About million worth of IRA-funded REAP grants have not been paid out yet according to the evidence That s not surprising given that projects may still be under construction but after President Donald Trump froze IRA funds earlier this year selected farmers and clean strength advocates are worried about whether promised grants will be paid in full Andy Olsen senior plan advocate for the Environmental Law Protocol Center has done extensive facts analysis on REAP Given the Trump administration s hostility toward clean potential he wonders what REAP will look like in the future Will they backing solar and wind projects Olsen solicited This is a crew that likes refineries likes ethanol big centralized capacity technologies I could see them only making awards to biomass ethanol maybe certain vitality efficiency In addition to grants REAP provides loan guarantees for projects That money does not go directly to the recipient but the guarantee helps them secure private financing since the administration promises to back up the loan if the recipient were to default More than billion worth of loan guarantees have been made under REAP since the content shows While the majority of REAP grants go to solar and power efficiency REAP has also obligated over million to biogas biofuel and biomass projects over million to wind and more than million each to hydroelectric and geothermal projects Battery projects are also eligible for REAP though only a minimal of those grants have been made thus far Fernholz the farmer in Minnesota hopes he can tap such a grant in the future The next step for people like myself should be looking at power storage revealed Fernholz who grew up on his parents farm as one of nine siblings He uses sustainable practices like conservation tillage and a tiling system to keep water from running off into nearby rivers He also has acres of native grassland and wetlands in a conservation reserve effort Solar is a major contribution to these efforts When the REAP grant came through that was a blessing the frosting on the cake Fernholz explained How a Trump guidelines to preserve farmland could backfire A latest U S Department of Agriculture protocol document which outlines a strategy to Make Agriculture Great Again says that going forward REAP will disincentivize solar on productive farmland Ritter is worried that means sparse ground-mounted solar arrays will receive grants though he imagines panels on barn and farmhouse rooftops will still be awarded I can understand there are chosen concerns about the loss of farmland It s an emotional issue Ritter noted But he notes that housing growth is the largest cause of farmland loss Indeed the American Farmland Trust disclosed in that between and the country is on track to convert over million acres of farmland and ranchland to low-density residential maturation like scattered houses and subdivisions with big lots Another roughly million acres could be lost to higher-density residential enhancement commercial buildings and industrial sites the trust says Ritter noted installing solar can truly help prevent such conversions by providing farmers revenue and vigor savings that increase the financial viability of their farms Meanwhile agrivoltaic practices like grazing livestock between rows of panels mean solar and farming can coexist There are a lot of great avenues to do solar on prime farmland Ritter revealed You can build power dominance and farm at the same time Since Bill Jordan has helped close to farmers write REAP grants to install solar with his company Jordan Vigor in upstate New York Electric bills are perpetually in the top expenses of running a farm business disclosed Jordan Any business that s going to run itself well will look at those costs Behind-the-meter solar is a way of offsetting the cost of your own electricity and it s a wise diversification of farm revenue Jordan revealed he has met farmers who are milking cows and making more money on the solar farm than on milk production It s also a diversification that the next generation gets As farmers do family succession planning the younger generation gets excited about solar Jordan hopes solar funding under REAP doesn t diminish because of partisan politics emphasizing that it drives solar manufacturing and installation jobs along with helping farmers These are good American jobs he mentioned Let s not throw out the baby with the bathwater Creating resource independence is really what this is about The post Trump s rural vigor freeze hits Midwest GOP districts hardest appeared first on MinnPost