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FARMERS IN TRUMP COUNTRY WERE COUNTING ON CLEAN ENERGY GRANTS. THEN
THE GOVERNMENT CHANGED THE RULES.  
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Ames Alexander & Mario Alejandro Ariza, Floodlight; Joe Engleman,
Barn Raiser
March 25, 2025
Barn Raiser
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_ Thousands of farmers and small rural businesses now in limbo as
USDA demands grant rewrites that favor fossil fuels over renewables. _


Thousands of farmers and small rural business owners have been left
in limbo because of the Trump administration’s decision to freeze
funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for renewable energy
projects, (Dee J. Hall, Floodlight)).

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced late Tuesday it will
release previously authorized grant funds to farmers and small rural
business owners to build renewable energy projects—but only if they
rewrite applications to comply with President Donald Trump’s energy
priorities.

The move has left some farmers perplexed—and doubtful that they’ll
ever get the grant money they were promised, given the Trump
administration’s emphasis on fossil fuels and hostility toward
renewable energy.

Laura Beth Resnick, photographed here collecting flowers at her
Maryland farm, spent $36,000 to have solar panels installed at the
farm, expecting to get the same amount in grant money from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. But the grant she was set to receive has
been put on hold. Now she has joined a lawsuit to fight the Trump
administration’s decision to freeze those grants. (LA Birdie
Photography).

Some of the roughly 6,000 grant applicants have already completed the
solar, wind or other energy projects and are awaiting promised
repayment from the government. Others say they can’t afford to take
on the projects they’d been planning unless the grant money comes
through.

A _Floodlight_ analysis shows the overwhelming majority of the
intended recipients of this money reside in Trump
country—congressional districts represented by Republicans.

After hearing of the USDA’s latest announcement Wednesday, Minnesota
strawberry farmer Andy Petran said he suspects many previously
approved projects won’t be funded. He’d been approved for a
$39,625 grant to install solar panels on his farm. But like many other
farmers nationally, Petran got word from the USDA earlier this year
that his grant money had been put on hold.

“It’s not like any small farmer who is looking to put solar panels
on their farms will be able to put a natural gas refinery or a coal
refinery on the farm,” Petran said. “I don’t know what they
expect me to switch to.”

Petran was counting on the benefits that solar power would bring to
his farm.

After getting word in September that the USDA had approved his grant
application, he expected the solar panels would not only reduce his
electricity bill but allow him to sell power back to the grid. He and
his wife figured the extra income would help expand their Twin Cities
Berry Co. and pay down their debt more quickly.

Petran’s optimism was soon extinguished. A USDA representative told
him earlier this year that the grant had been frozen.

His 15-acre farm about 40 miles north of Minneapolis operates on a
razor-thin margin, Petran said, so without the grant money, he can’t
afford to build the $80,000 solar project.

“Winning these grants was a contract between us and the
government,” he said. “There was a level of trust there. That
trust has been broken.”

Andy Petran, shown here in front of the barn at his Minnesota
strawberry farm, had been counting on a USDA grant to help him build a
solar array that would have saved the farm money. Now that grant is
frozen, so Petran can’t move forward with the project. _(Courtesy
of Andy Petran)_

In its announcement, issued Tuesday night, the USDA said grant
recipients will have 30 days to review and revise their project plans
to align with President Trump’s Unleashing American Energy
Executive Order
[[link removed]],
which prioritizes fossil fuel production and cuts federal support for
renewable energy projects.

“This process gives rural electric providers and small businesses
the opportunity to refocus their projects on expanding American energy
production while eliminating Biden-era DEIA and climate mandates
embedded in previous proposals,” the USDA news release said. “…
This updated guidance reflects a broader shift away from the Green New
Deal.”

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said in the release that the new
directive will give rural energy providers and small businesses a
chance to “realign their projects” with Trump’s priorities.

It’s unclear what this will mean for grant recipients who’ve
already spent money on renewable energy projects—or those whose
planned projects have been stalled by the administration’s funding
freeze.

The USDA didn’t directly answer those questions. In an email
to _Floodlight_ on Wednesday, a department spokesperson said the
agency must approve any proposed changes to plans—but offered no
specific guidance on what or whether changes should be made.

“Awardees that do not respond via the website will be considered as
not wishing to make changes to their proposals, and disbursements and
other actions will resume after 30 days,” the email said. “For
awardees who respond via the website to confirm no changes, processing
on their projects will resume immediately.”

IRA FUNDING TARGETED

The grant funding was put on hold after an executive order issued by
President Trump on his first day in office. It froze hundreds of
billions of dollars for renewable energy under President Joe Biden’s
massive climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The law added more than $1 billion to the USDA’s 17-year-old Rural
Energy for America (REAP) program.

About 6,000 REAP grants funded with IRA money have been paused and are
being reviewed for compliance with Trump’s executive order,
according to a March 5 email from the USDA’s rural development
office to the office of U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

A lawsuit
[[link removed]] filed
earlier this month challenges the legality of the freeze on IRA
funding for REAP projects.

Earthjustice lawyer Hana Vizcarra, one of the attorneys who filed the
suit, called the latest USDA announcement a “disingenuous stunt.”

“President Trump and Secretary Rollins can’t change the rules of
the game well into the second half,” she said in a statement 
[[link removed]]Wednesday.
“This is the definition of an arbitrary and capricious catch-22.”

Under the REAP grant program, farmers pay for renewable and lower
carbon energy projects, then submit proof of the completed work to the
USDA for reimbursement. The grants were intended to fund solar panels,
wind turbines, grain dryers, irrigation upgrades and other projects,
USDA data shows.

At a press conference in Atlanta on March 12
[[link removed]],
Rollins said, “If our farmers and ranchers, especially, have already
spent money under a commitment that was made, the goal is to make sure
they are made whole.”

But some contend the administration is unfairly making farmers jump
through more hoops.

“This isn’t cutting red tape; it’s adding more,” said Andy
Olsen, senior policy advocate with the Environmental Law and Policy
Center, a Midwest-based environmental advocacy group. “The USDA
claims to deliver on commitments, but these new rules could result in
awarded grants being permanently frozen.”

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a longtime farmer and Maine Democrat who
sits on the House agriculture committee, said she thinks it’s
illegal and unconstitutional for the administration to withhold grant
money allocated by Congress. Beyond that, she said, it has hurt
cash-strapped farmers.

“This is about farmers making ends meet,” she told _Floodlight_.
“It’s not some ideological issue for us.”

GOP LAWMAKERS SILENT

Using USDA data, _Floodlight_ identified the top 10 congressional
districts that received the most grants. They’re all represented by
Republicans who have said little publicly about the funding freezes
affecting thousands of their constituents. It’s impossible to tell
from the USDA data which REAP grants will get paid out.

The congressional district that received the most REAP grants was
Iowa’s 2nd District, in the northeastern part of the state. Farmers
and business owners there got more than 300 grants from 2023 through
2025. The district is represented by U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who has
previously voiced support for “alternative energy strategies.”

“More than half of the energy produced in Iowa is from renewable
sources, and that is something for Iowans to be very proud of,” she
told the House Appropriations Committee 
[[link removed]]in
June 2022.

Hinson’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on
the matter.

The No. 2 spot for REAP grants: Minnesota’s 1st Congressional
District, represented by U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad. In that district,
which spans southern Minnesota, more than 260 farmers and rural
businesses were approved for REAP grants.

Finstad’s office did not return multiple emails and calls requesting
comment. His constituents have been complaining
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funding freezes. They’ve staged at least two demonstrations at his
offices in Minnesota. Finstad said he held a February 26 telephone
town hall 
[[link removed]]joined
by 3,000 people in his district.

In a February 28 letter to a constituent, Finstad said Rollins has
announced that the USDA will honor contracts already signed with
farmers and that he looks forward to working with the administration
“to support the needs of farm country.”

Finstad is no stranger to the REAP program. Before becoming a
congressman, he was the USDA’s state director of rural development
for Minnesota. In that role, he was a renewable booster.

“By reducing energy costs, renewable energy helps to create
opportunities for improvement elsewhere, like creating jobs,”
Finstad said in a 2021 USDA press release
[[link removed]].
That has since been deleted from the agency’s website.

Rollins, meanwhile, called herself “a massive defender of fossil
fuels” at her confirmation hearing, and she has expressed skepticism
about the findings of climate scientists. “We know the research of
CO2 being a pollutant is just not valid,” Rollins said
[[link removed]] at
the Heartland Institute’s 2018 conference on energy.

She has also said that she welcomes the efforts of Elon Musk and his
cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency team at the USDA.

LOSING TRUST IN GOVERNMENT

Jake Rabe, a solar installer in Blairstown, Iowa, said he has put up
more than 100,000 solar modules in the state since getting into the
business in 2015. More than 30 of his customers have completed their
installation but are awaiting frozen grant funding, he said. At least
10 more have signed the paperwork but are hesitant to begin
construction. Millions of dollars worth of his business are frozen, he
said.

On top of that, Rabe said, the state’s net metering policies—in
which solar users get credits for any excess power they send back to
the grid—are set to expire in 2026.

“I kind of feel like it may be the beginning of the end for the
solar industry in Iowa with what’s going on,” said Rabe, who owns
Rabe Hardware.

Despite it all, he remains a Trump supporter.

“Under the current administration, I think we’re doing things that
are necessary for the betterment of the entire United States,” he
said.

On March 13, Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law group, filed
a federal lawsuit against the USDA on behalf of five farmers and three
nonprofits. They’re seeking a court order to compel the Trump
administration to honor the government’s grant commitments, saying
it violated the Constitution by refusing to disburse funds allocated
by Congress.

Vizcarra, the Earthjustice lawyer, said she is disturbed by the lack
of concern from Congress, whose powers appear to have been usurped by
the administration.

She added, “These are real people, real farmers and real
organizations whose projects have impacts on communities who are left
with this horrible situation with no idea of when it will end.”

One of the plaintiffs, Laura Beth Resnick, grows dahlias, zinnias and
other cut flowers on a small farm about 30 miles north of Baltimore.

Florists are her customers, and demand for her flowers blooms during
cold-weather holidays like Thanksgiving. Each of her three greenhouses
is half the length of a football field and heating them during those
months isn’t cheap, Resnick said. The power bill for Butterbee Farm
often exceeds $500 a month.

So a year ago, Resnick applied for a USDA renewable energy grant,
hoping to put solar panels on her barn roof—a move that she
estimated would save about $5,000 a year. In August, the USDA sent
word that her farm had been awarded a grant for $36,450.

The cost of installing solar panels was $72,000, she said. So she paid
a solar contractor $36,000 upfront, expecting that she’d pay the
rest in January when the federal grant money came in. The solar panels
were installed in December.

But the federal government’s check never arrived. A February 4 email
from a USDA representative said her request for reimbursement was
rejected due to the Trump administration’s recent executive orders.

Resnick said she sought help from her elected representatives but got
“pretty much nowhere.”

After hearing about the USDA’s announcement Wednesday, Resnick said
that based on the response she’s previously gotten from the USDA,
she’s not confident she will get her grant money.

“I’ve lost my trust in the USDA at this point,” she said. “Our
project is complete, so we can’t change the scope of it.”

Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat, said he supports the legal fight
against the funding freeze.

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are scamming our farmers,” Van Hollen
said in a statement to _Floodlight_. “By illegally withholding
these reimbursements for work done under federal grants, they’re
breaking a promise to farmers and small businesses in Maryland and
across the country.”

RENEWABLE PROJECTS ON HOLD

Since 2023, when IRA funding became available, the USDA has given or
loaned about $21.3 billion through programs to support renewable
energy in rural areas, according to a _Floodlight_ analysis of
agency data, including the REAP program.

Those grant payments were processed until January 20, when the Trump
administration announced its freeze.

Trump’s decision was in line with Project 2025
[[link removed]], a
conservative blueprint crafted by the Heritage Foundation aimed at
reshaping the U.S. government. That document called for repealing the
IRA and rescinding “all funds not already spent by these
programs.”

Environmental groups have sharply criticized the administration’s
move, and several lawsuits are challenging the legality of the freeze
of IRA funding.

At a recent public roundtable
[[link removed]],
Maggie Bruns, CEO of the Prairie Rivers Network which supports
Illinois communities’ transition to clean energy, listed REAP grants
that have been held up in Illinois, where her multifaceted
environmental nonprofit is based. A $390,000 grant for a solar array
at the grocery store in Carlinville; $27,000 for solar panels at an
auto body shop in Staunton; $51,000 for a solar array for a golf
course in Alton.

Since 2023, farmers and businesses in Illinois have been approved for
more than 590 REAP grants, making the state the third highest in
number of recipients in the United States, _Floodlight_’s analysis
shows. In an interview with _Barn Raiser_, Bruns said the decision to
freeze such grants has caused unneeded stress for farmers. Before the
executive order, USDA’s rural development team had worked hard to
bring dollars for renewable energy projects to Illinois farmers, she
said.

“That’s the thing we should be celebrating right now,” Bruns
said, “and instead we have to fight to make sure that money actually
does land into the pockets of the people who have gone ahead, jumped
through all these hoops and are attempting to do the right thing for
their businesses and their farms.”

In January, Dan Batson’s nursery in Mississippi was approved for a
$400,367 REAP grant—money that he planned to use to install four
solar arrays. He intended to use that solar energy to power the pumps
that irrigate more than 1 million trees, a move that would have saved
the company about $25,000 a year in electricity costs.

Seated in a wooded area about 30 miles north of Biloxi, his
42-year-old GreenForest nursery ships potted magnolias, hollies, crepe
myrtles and other trees to southern states. Until a couple of months
ago, Batson had been excited about what the grant money would mean for
the business.

Daniel Batson’s GreenForest tree nursery, shown here, was approved
for a $400,367 grant to install solar panels. The move would have
saved the Mississippi nursery $25,000 a year, he said. But now the
grant has been frozen and Batson says he can’t afford to move ahead
with the project. _(Courtesy of Daniel Batson)._

But when he saw news about the funding being held up earlier this
year, he called a local USDA representative who confirmed the funds
had been frozen. Batson had already sent the solar contractor
$240,000. Now, his plans are on hold.

“I just can’t do the project if I don’t get the money,” he
said.

Tuesday’s announcement from the USDA makes him no more confident
he’ll get the money, he said.

Batson said he’s a fiscal conservative, so he understands the effort
to cut costs. “But,” he said, “the way they’ve gone about it
has disrupted a lot of business owners’ lives.”

_Ames Alexander has worked as an investigative reporter for more than
three decades, most recently at the Charlotte
Observer. Alexander’s work has garnered more than 35 national
honors, including The Robert F. Kennedy journalism award, the Gerald
Loeb business reporting award, and the Investigative Reporters and
Editors award. _

_Mario Alejandro Ariza is an investigative reporter and a Dominican
immigrant. His byline has appeared in the South Florida Sun
Sentinel, The New Republic and NPR._

_Joe Engleman is a writer and communications consultant with a
graduate degree in urban planning and policy. His interests include
enhancing the solidarity economy, movements for climate and food
justice and community wealth building._

_Floodlight [[link removed]] is a nonprofit newsroom
that investigates the powers stalling climate action._

_Barn Raiser publishes independent news, analysis and information to
support diverse, civically engaged and dynamically connected rural and
small town communities. We champion the free exchange of public
dialogue by bringing together underrepresented voices and perspectives
on the intractable issues facing communities and policymakers. We seek
to convene a space where big ideas and bold questions enliven local
connections, where daring criticism, rational debate and compassionate
care will renew the social imagination to build common ground,
encourage democratic participation and inspire change._

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