USDA to end taxpayer funding for solar on 'productive farmland'
US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has announced that her department will no longer use "taxpayer dollars" to fund solar panels on productive farmland.
The department is also set to stop solar panels manufactured by "foreign adversaries" of the US from being used in USDA projects.
The USDA claimed that subsidised solar panels have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available.
According to the department, the state of Tennessee alone has lost 1.2 million acres of farmland to solar panels within the last 30 years.
Since 2012, the amount of farmland with solar panels has increased by 50%, the USDA said.
Rollins commented: "Our prime farmland should not be wasted and replaced with...subsidised solar panels. It has been disheartening to see out beautiful farmland displaced by solar projects, especially in rural areas that have strong agricultural heritage.
"One of the largest barriers on entry for new and young farmers is access to land. Subsidised solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available.
"We are no longer allowing businesses to use your taxpayer dollars to fund solar projects on prime American farmland, and we will no longer allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in our USDA-funded projects," she added.
The USDA said that Rollins' decision will "rapidly eliminate the market distortions and costs imposed on taxpayers by reducing energy subsidies and builds".
US president Donald Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' Act, a government spending and tax act, is set to see the repeal of, and modifications to, wind, solar, and other 'green' energy tax credits.
As part of the that bill and the USDA's latest move on solar, wind and solar projects will no longer be available under the department's Rural Development Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Programme.
For the department's Rural Energy for America Programme, the USDA will ensure that farmers, ranchers and producers that use wind and solar energy sources will install units that are "right-sized for their facilities".
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