Farmers and rural businesses left without funding for their clean energy projects after federal freezing

A freezing of federal loans and grants is to create riots for some owners of Rural Businesses of the US, who are afraid they will not be reimbursed for new, cleaner irrigation or solar panels they bought with the promise of a discount.

At Cherryville, Maine, Hugh Lassen and his wife and two teenagers grow organic, wild blueberries on their interval farm. Last year they bought solar panels to run their home, a blueberry attacker and 14 freezes. They made it thinking they would get a $ 8,000 grant through the Rural Energy for America program.

“It’s never the right time to spend $ 25,700,” Lassen said. “It’s a lot of money for us because we’re pretty small … You also have the costs of the approaching college.”

President Donald Trump ordered a freezing In providing these funds, but federal judges have said that departments can distribute them. However, many departments have not resumed writing controls, so questions remain for some business owners who spent years making plans for improvements that could only afford grants.

“We will simply have to absorb it if the funds somehow do not come,” Lassen said.

Reap, offered through the US Department of Agriculture, is One of the many shocked initiatives by freezing funds. It provides grants for small businesses in rural areas so that they generate clean energy or improve their energy efficiency. In addition to the sun, it has helped to finance wind turbines, electrical irrigation pumps to replace them with oil and corn ethanol.

Once a business is approved for Reap, it buys technology and operates it for at least 30 days. Then a USDA agent comes out personally for verification and stopping any problems, the control is released.

Some people have spent months in their applications.

Deanna and Christopher Boettcher led Mar Vista Farm and Cottages in Gualala, California, and began their Reap request in 2023. They put in time passing plans with contractors and filling out the documents for 48 solar panels to cover about 80% of needs theirs for electricity.

On the day they received the approval to buy the panels, the freezing of funds was announced.

“I’m speechless,” said Deanna Bettcher. “Absolutely this will change my plans. There is no way that we can build the solar system without funding … so many obstacles and obstacles they put on the road, and to finally get there and then. “

Their solar system cost $ 82,600. Reap is supposed to cover half. “We won’t even think about starting it if we don’t know it’s not frozen … so we’re again where I was two years ago.”

Lassen emphasized that the lowest power costs make the products of farms cheaper to make, allowing them to be at a lower price. The sun and wind are attractive to distant communities because they can be cheaper than traditional energy sources, such as oil generators and irrigation pumps.

Grants have proven to be a major impetus for new clean energy projects in rural areas because they reduce the price.

But the Trump administration believes that the role of the government should be much more limited. Rather than solar energy or energy efficiency, Trump has often spoken of his Support for oil and gasBy deleting environmental and climatic policies created under the administration of Biden. His main adviser, billionaire Elon Musk, has said the government should remove all credits and federal tax subsidies.

Russell Vought, just confirmed White House budget directorCo -author of the Conservative Agenda for Trump’s second term, project 2025, which criticized renewable both wind and solar and encouraged more oil and gas use.

USDA executives “are directed to assess whether grants, loans, contracts and other disbursements match the new administration policies,” according to a statement from a department spokesman who noted that Brooke Rollins, USDA secretary, ” It will have the opportunity to review the programs and work with the White House to make determinations as soon as possible, “after it is confirmed.

The Lassens Solar System has an inverter Tesla, which converts the direct current from the panels to the alternative current used in the property. Hugh said this puts it in a “funny place we are taking advantage of the power of the brain” but can also suffer from the efforts of “Slash and Burn Costo Cutting” by Elon Musk.

“Farmers and owners of small businesses across the Appalachia and Rural America are trying to stay in the sea,” said Chelsea Barnes, director of government affairs and strategy at the Appalachian Voices, a non -profit focused on sustainability. For the people who have been given funds and have made purchases but have not been reimbursed, “this will cause considerable financial damage.”

Reap started with the 2002 farm bill and has long enjoyed strong two-party support for energy self-esteem, with money deriving through the farm bill legislation and the law on reducing inflation. The program has spent $ 2.4 billion in total since it was created and about half of it came from the Biden IRA administration, it passed to 2022.

“Really really counterproductive to go after a program that does so much to help farmers reduce their costs. This is something they all agree. Mostly benefits from Republican districts,” said Andy Olsen, a senior lawyer of policies in the center of law and environmental policies.

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