Success Stories
A New Cleaner Energy Future
Agriculture can strengthen our nation’s energy security. More clean renewable energy and energy efficiency in rural America helps to meet our nation’s energy needs while boosting local economies, improving environmental quality and strengthening our energy infrastructure. Americans are looking for more clean energy choices, and agriculture can provide them.
The 2002 Farm Bill created programs to help farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses invest in proven clean windpower, biofuels, solar power and energy efficiency improvements. These programs offer substantial grants and loans to jumpstart clean energy projects. Agriculture producers and rural businesses are responding enthusiastically with applications now far exceeding available funds.
These new clean energy programs are a win-win-win-win for farmers and ranchers, national energy security, rural economic vitality and the environment:
- Family farmers and ranchers gain a potential new income streams.
- Energy security is strengthened with diverse, distributed and resilient energy systems. Renewable energy and energy efficiency reduce the risk from fuel supply disruptions, stabilize the power grid.
- Rural economic vitality is increased through investments in rural communities, and new jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors.
- Environmental quality is improved by reducing air pollution through less wasted energy and more renewable energy development. Many of these energy sources also help to protect our soil and water resources.
Congressional Support for the Farm Bill’s Clean Energy Programs
“American farmers and rural businesses are successfully using the Section 9006 clean energy program to leverage hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment for successful new renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. These new energy projects are good for rural economies, good for the environment, and good for our national energy security.”
-Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
“Our insatiable appetite for energy, particularly that from outside our borders, represents one of our gravest security threats. The Energy Title of the 2002 Farm Bill recognized our nation’s agriculture and rural sectors’ ability to confront these risks. Solutions, such as the Section 9006 program, not only improve our nation’s energy equation, but also provide an economic stimulus to our rural economy.”
-Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana)
“Rural America possesses the resources and the innovative spirit that can lead our nation away from dependence on foreign oil and non-renewable sources of energy. The 2002 Farm Bill took the first steps to help farmers, ranchers and small businesses with energy conservation and production, and I expect we will continue and expand on these efforts in the new Farm Bill. Programs like Section 9006 provide the resources that are helping rural America make practical ideas to save or produce energy a reality. This kind of common-sense, practical program will help transform rural America into an energy resource for the entire nation.”
-Representative Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota)
“Programs such as Section 9006, which leverage federal funds for private investment in renewable energy innovations, help to provide a more diverse energy base for our nation. The pinch of high energy costs is being felt nationwide and farming operations have been among those hit hardest. The Section 9006 program works to address this problem by rewarding proven clean energy technologies and contributing significantly toward the effort of developing on-farm energy sources. We need to continue to support these kinds of programs to ensure that our country’s domestic energy supply remains plentiful and secure.”
-Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)
“I strongly support the Section 9006 renewable energy/energy efficiency program because it is one of the only federal programs that comprehensively transforms a clean energy development vision into “refueling pumps in the ground” across rural America. Farms and rural businesses want clean energy choices. Rural America also can supply clean energy to meet a substantial portion of our nation’s energy needs while strengthening domestic energy security, boosting farmer income, and improving environmental quality. Section 9006 successfully achieves these objectives.”
-Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio)
