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 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 $1.1 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…
