Why is Trump gutting a rural renewable energy program?

The USDA just issued a final ruling that will effectively end federal support for renewable energy projects on cropland. The program is The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). 

The decision is in keeping with President Trump’s long-standing hostility toward wind- and solar-energy projects. With regard to projects supported by REAP, the Trump administration, through Agriculture Secretary Brooke R. Rollins, calls them “unreliable” and adds that they “have not fully delivered on their stated goals.” 

As to federal support,  Rollins says, “as of today that ends.”

South Dakota has participated in the program, to the tune of millions of dollars, in scattered parts of the state. USDA has touted the success of its projects in South Dakota, one of numerous states that have seen similar REAP-funded success stories.  

Given that backdrop, the USDA decision to drop the program seems arbitrary and contrary to its history of success.

Indeed, EARTHJUSTICE, which describes itself as the nation’s “premier nonprofit public interest environmental law organization,” has filed a lawsuit against USDA, challenging its gutting of REAP.

Says EARTHJUSTICE: “For decades, REAP had been a smashing success story. Since 2014, 19,000 farms and rural small businesses across all 50 states received REAP awards from USDA. According to USDA, in 2024 alone, the program awarded over $1 billion in REAP grants and loan guarantees nationwide, and generated or saved enough energy to power more than 300,000 homes. As late as May 2025, USDA touted REAP success stories, including the purchase of a 1.5 MW solar array by a farm in Habersham County, Georgia, which would “realize $176,490 per year of income and will generate 2,206 MWh per year, enough to power 204 homes.” 

My take? I want to see some specificity from USDA as to how many REAP projects have been “unreliable” and “have not delivered as promised.” USDA itself boasts about the history of the program. Success stories in South Dakota and other states have had uniformly positive outcomes.

We need endeavors like REAP. Climate change is a fact. Says NASA, “there is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.”

Seems logical that the USDA would do all it can to facilitate the downshift of a man-made process that could do all of us in if we don’t change our ways.

John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.  

Photo: REAP-funded project in Tennessee, public domain, wikimedia commons

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