USDA Rule Change Kills Solar Funding for Rural Farmers — SkimNews
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- USDA finalized REAP rule changes on October 1 taking effect October 16 that make solar projects with components from a 'foreign adversary' country ineligible for funding; because most solar equipment is made in China, the change effectively ends new solar development through the program.
- Earthjustice and the Environmental Law and Policy Center filed a lawsuit on September 28 on behalf of groups including the Iowa Farmers Union, arguing the USDA's prior August 2025 restrictions on REAP solar funding already violated the program's renewable-energy mandate and the Administrative Procedure Act.
- The new rules also require applicants to have energy systems operating for one year before being eligible for REAP reimbursement, further delaying access to funds already slow to reach farmers.
- Iowa Farmers Union executive director Matt Russell said the restrictions will accelerate consolidation in agriculture by cutting off small family farms and rural entrepreneurs from a key public funding source.
- USDA defended the change to Utility Dive saying that under the Biden administration, 'fertile farmland that should be feeding America' was used to produce solar instead, adding: 'Those days are over.'
- The rule changes trace to a July 2025 Trump executive order stating taxpayers would no longer 'subsidize expensive and unreliable energy sources like wind and solar,' though the order did not specifically direct USDA action.
Why it matters: With fertilizer, fuel, labor, and seed costs squeezing margins, the REAP lifeline that helped small farmers install solar is being closed off precisely when it is most useful. Plaintiffs argue the USDA is acting opposite to the renewable-energy mandate Congress wrote into the 2008 farm bill, and Russell warns the result accelerates consolidation toward the largest operations.
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