Fighting for Jobs, Clean Energy in Rural America
Leonard Boswell
June 13, 2011
This week I will stand up for rural Iowa and the state’s farmers when I oppose legislation that nearly eliminates a program that helps rural communities invest in energy-efficient and renewable energy projects to improve their quality of life and local economies.
The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) has given Iowa farmers and businesses more than $57 million in grants and $74 million worth of loan guarantees since 1993 when it started, according to the USDA. The majority of the projects have helped growers purchase higher-efficiency grain drying equipment which saves them thousands in energy costs. Additionally, it helps farmers install geothermal heating and cooling systems and wind turbines. Just this year, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the Department would begin awarding grants to rural gas stations to install gas pumps for ethanol-blended fuel.
Iowa is the largest beneficiary of REAP funds, and I am committed to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to reach a compromise on its funding. REAP has already been cut by 25 percent for this fiscal year and the majority’s intention to reduce its funding from $75 million to $1.3 million is unacceptable. When the House Appropriations Committee passed this legislation, Members chose to dismantle a program that helps rural communities thrive and their economies grow in order to maintain tax breaks for oil and gas companies and incentives for companies that outsource American jobs. This is not about reducing spending. It is an outright attack on Middle America to protect Corporate America.
As your Congressman, I will not stand by as appropriators blindly cut spending in programs that truly grow the economy and support Iowa businesses and communities. Every American needs an affordable and accessible food supply grown in the most efficient way possible. Effectively terminating the REAP program will reduce efficiency in food production, increasing prices in the grocery store, and, in the end, hurting every American family, not just Iowans.
