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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Will Clean Energy for Rural Minnesota Survive the Farm Bill?

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Monday, July 9, 2012   

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The U.S. House Agriculture Committee this week considers its version of the national Farm Bill, which makes deeper cuts than the version passed in the Senate. Farmers and environmentalists are concerned about the fate of renewable energy funding in the measure.

Ron Omann, state energy coordinator for the USDA, says many Minnesota farmers have used farm bill energy title grants for energy independence.

"You know, with the wind, or solar generation, along with geo-thermal, their operations are basically replacing, you know, upwards of a hundred percent. It's just a wildly popular program with farmers and small businesses."

The renewable energy programs are so popular that Omann says he had to turn away 2,000 applicants because of lack of funds. The House farm bill contains no mandatory funding for such clean-energy projects.

Andy Olsen, senior policy advocate with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, says that since 2003 Minnesota farmers have benefited greatly from clean-energy loans and grants.

"There have been over 700 awards in Minnesota, for over $36 million in grants and over $6 million in loan guarantees."

One of the programs that receives no mandatory funding under the House bill is known as REAP, or the Renewable Energy for America Program. Olsen says farmers and small businesses have made good use of those dollars and moved the state closer to energy independence.

"Minnesota farmers have really pioneered the use of REAP for community-owned wind turbines, for example, as well as for other improvements like energy-efficiency improvements on the farm and for solar panels as well."

Olsen says farmers have made progress also in creating biofuels. But, he says, to overcome rural energy challenges they need a consistent commitment to clean energy.

Without action by Congress, renewable energy programs covered under the farm bill's energy title will expire September 30.

The House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to begin marking up its draft of the farm bill on Wednesday, July 11.




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