The Rural Energy for America Program has for years helped thousands of American farmers pay for solar panels that lower their energy bills and earn them extra income. The Trump administration is largely putting an end to that.
The program, known as REAP, will no longer help farmers install large solar arrays on their land. Even smaller arrays could be unlikely to get funding under new restrictions on equipment made in China, as outlined in a recent internal Agriculture Department memo obtained by Canary Media.
Since 2014, the program has awarded around $1.2 billion in grants and $2.5 billion in loan guarantees for solar in rural areas nationwide, the vast majority of that on farms. Around 70% of the two-decade-old program’s funds have gone to solar projects over the last 10 years.
But on Aug. 19, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced, ​“USDA will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland or allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in USDA projects.”
The internal memo notes that solar projects with any of four characteristics will be ineligible for REAP loan guarantees and ​“disincentivized” in the point system used to award REAP grants.
These are illogical reasons for denying solar for farmers. Just more fossil fuel industry meddling that will hurt farmers and benefit fossil fuels.