The Trump administration wants to keep climate change out of the Agriculture Department’s rural energy grant program. Rep. David Valadao, a California Republican from a swing district, is trying to put it back in.
Valadao, a dairy farmer from the Central Valley, has teamed up with a Virginia Democrat to reintroduce legislation requiring USDA to favor small rural energy projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions — just the type of project the Trump administration halted earlier this year.
Valadao’s bill with Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) would make a handful of changes to the Rural Energy for America Program, including boosting the federal government’s matching funds for projects and allowing more agriculture producer cooperatives to participate.
Program supporters, including the Environmental Law & Policy Center and farmer-owned cooperatives, support the legislation while acknowledging it may face long odds in the current political environment.
