Farmers and rural business owners have been in a state of uncertainty since the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would only release the $911 million in authorized Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant funds to awardees that rewrite applications to comply with the Trump Administration energy priorities released January 20, 2025. This decision affected nearly 6,000 REAP grant recipients, many of whom had already completed and paid for solar installations and energy efficiency upgrades and were awaiting their reimbursements.
With notifications to awardees by USDA beginning March 26th that federal REAP Grant funds will be unfrozen, applicants are given 3 options to respond on this website:
- Don’t respond to the website. USDA will then process the application after 30 days.
- Respond via the website to confirm they don’t want to make changes to their project application. For awardees who respond this way, processing will resume immediately.
- Propose changes voluntarily within their existing budget to pivot to the administration’s January 20 Executive Order on energy priorities.
For direct questions, REAP awardees can contact their Wisconsin USDA Rural Development Energy Coordinator, Joel Ponshock, joel.ponshock@usda.gov, 715-345-7653.