Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday that the department would be cutting off subsidies for solar power projects on U.S. farmland, asserting that they are making it harder for producers to afford acreage.
Neither Rollins, who was speaking in Tennessee, nor the department provided any guidance on USDA’s plans.
But a USDA-Rural Development memo obtained by Agri-Pulse indicated that solar and wind projects would be made ineligible for the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan program and that the Rural Energy for America Program guaranteed loans and grants would be restricted to small-scale projects.
Solar projects containing Chinese components also would be ineligible for REAP, as would projects on "certified cropland," as defined by the Farm Service Agency.
The memo to national and state RD staff cites a July 7 executive order signed by President Donald Trump and has an expiration date of Aug. 31, 2026.
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"[The] Department of Agriculture is taking bold action to keep prime farmland in production by eliminating all USDA programs that use your taxpayer dollars to subsidize solar panels on productive farmland," Rollins said in her remarks in Lebanon, Tennessee, on Monday.
Rollins also said "subsidized solar farms have made it more and more and even almost entirely impossible for new farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available."
"Instead of aspiring farmers driving by farmland that could be theirs, they see 'for sale' signs with prices they'll never be able to afford," she said.
The USDA directive is in line with a broader effort by Trump and congressional Republicans to curb clean energy development and roll back broader efforts to address climate change.
Although a USDA press release issued in connection with Rollins’ visit didn’t address her plans to stop solar and wind subsidies it did include a quote from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on the issue.
“Tennessee farmland should be used to grow the crops that feed our state and country, not to house solar panels made by foreign countries like Communist China. Secretary Rollins and President Trump are right to put an end to these Green New Deal subsidies that waste taxpayer dollars while threatening America’s food security. I applaud this administration for investing in rural communities across Tennessee and empowering them to prosper for years to come,” said Blackburn.
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Steve Davies contributed to this report.
