REAP Grants Announced

REAP Grants Announced. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager yesterday announced the awarding of loans and grants for over 500 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects across the U.S. and including 19 projects in Oregon, 2 in Washington and 2 in Idaho. TONSAGER: The total loan and grant amount is about $30 million dollars. This program, particularly the Rural Energy for America program is designed to help energy efficiency in businesses across the United States, especially in rural America and in agriculture. They help pay for projects like installing or upgrading equipment, energy audits and feasibility studies, we also do methane digesters, photo-voltaic electrical generation, wind turbines. Any kinds of projects that can help effectively improve the efficiency and production of energy in rural America. Tonsager says that there should be a significant savings and power generation with these projects. TONSAGER: We believe that the projects that have been announced this year will either save or generate power at about 2.9 billion kilowatt hours. We believe the efficiency improvement will be somewhere between 25% and 65% in each case. So the Rural energy for America Program is designed to specifically help those people in rural America who are looking to improve and get greater energy efficiency so they can be more productive, more competitive and they can reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses produced. The program was authorized in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. Funding is contingent upon the recipient meeting the conditions of the grant or loan agreement. With the recent election and a change coming to congress Tonsager says they have to be prepared. TONSAGER: There is a change in environment and I think we have to be prepared for changes in the future. I think certainly any new congress is going to come in with their own ideas and own objectives. I think that we can make a strong case for USDA Rural Development resources. Typically we'll have a budget authority of 3 or 4 billion dollars and we can turn that into about 20 billion dollars at the program level. I think everybody believes there is great opportunity in rural America for energy efficiency, new energy generation so I think we have a very strong case to be made on behalf of USDA Rural Development. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.