2012 Energy Year In Review
2012 Energy Year In Review. I’m Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report.
As the New Year is looming we are taking a look back at some of the stories we covered this past year and we talked a lot about biofuels and clean energy. In January the USDA announced that $60 million in grants and loan guarantees will be available for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) in 2012. Don Hollis with USDA Rural Development in Pendleton, OR explained.
HOLLIS: The Rural Energy for America Program again is designed to help ag producers and small rural businesses with doing renewable energy systems and doing energy efficiency improvements to their buildings, their farm out-buildings. Here in the northwest we’ve provided both loan and grant assistance to farmers for putting in anaerobic digesters. We’ve done a number of different small solar projects, especially here in Oregon. We’ve done a lot of energy efficiency improvements.
Building renewable energy infrastructure has helped create a lot of jobs. Karen Zerkle with Kardon Construction out of Lyons, Oregon has installed 9 small wind turbines on farms.
ZERKEL: It creates work for about 18 local suppliers and subcontractors. We’re getting the customers about 90% of the funding they need to put up the wind turbines but all of that money is going back into the local economy so we’ve been able to hire a part-time employee so again we’re helping the farmers and we’re helping the community. And we firmly believe all of these government incentives that are out there should stay in America and so we only put out made in the USA products.
The renewable energy business can not only help the environment but it can be profitable for ag producers according to Erin Greeson, Communications Manager with Renewable Northwest Project.
GREESON: We’re seeing that while other sorts of industries unfortunately have either had to close shop or in some cases ship jobs overseas, new renewable industries are putting money on the ground in the State of Washington and throughout the northwest and creating quite a lot of jobs and again those tax revenues to many rural counties.
And finally, much like the rural electric cooperatives of the past the business of renewable energy is giving people what they want. Ted Case is the Executive Director for the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
CASE: There’s sort of a generational shift and the country is electrified now but there’s still a very exciting role for electric coops. People want energy efficiency, they want renewables but what they really want is affordable, reliable power when you get down to it and that’s what I think we offer as good as anybody in the state or the northwest for that matter.
For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.???
www.harvestcleanenergy.org
