Tax credits and grant programs designed to power rural America are creating jobs in Utah — yet they face an uncertain future under President Trump.
(Shannon Sollitt | The Salt Lake Tribune) Perennial Favorites owner and CEO Cort Cox demonstrates plant propagation in a greenhouse at his nursery. Cox says solar panels installed last year have cut his energy costs in half, even as energy use has gone up.
A new greenhouse at Perennial Favorites, a wholesale plant nursery in Layton, is the last waiting place for thousands of lilies, petunias, geraniums and other plants before they’re shipped out to buyers across the Intermountain West.
A warehouse would have been cheaper to build and operate, said Perennial CEO Cort Cox. But the greenhouse keeps both plants and employees cool in the hot summer months, and protects them from the elements in harsher weather.
Cox was willing to opt for the more functional but more expensive choice, he said, in part because of the money he’s saved since installing a 64 kilowatt solar array at his facility last year.
The energy generated by the panels powers the new greenhouse and roughly 30% of Perennial’s operations, Cox said — and has cut his energy bill in half, even as energy use has grown.
“Energy is a huge concern for us, especially [with] the greenhouses,” Cox recently said at his farm. “When we can bring down our operating costs, we can invest in new technologies that let us produce faster, and save money while doing it.”
The nursery installed the solar panels using money from a Rural Energy for American Program (REAP) grant and Investment Tax Credit. Both are federal programs funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, and designed to help rural Americans tap into renewable energy. Their future is in question under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Cox invited a coalition of stakeholders, including fellow tax credit beneficiaries, energy advocates and journalists, to his nursery Thursday to demonstrate the federal funding in action.
“We’re a family-owned business; we started small in 1992 and have slowly grown, making smart investments in our production capacity,” he said. “Now, we’ve cut our [energy] usage pretty much in half with this solar array.”
Trump froze federal funding to climate-related, IRA-funded programs earlier this year. The freeze was lifted in March, but recipients were encouraged to “voluntarily revise their project plans to align with President Trump’s Unleashing American Energy Executive Order,” according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“This process gives rural electric providers and small businesses the opportunity to refocus their projects on expanding American energy production while eliminating Biden-era DEIA and climate mandates embedded in previous proposals,” the release said.
REAP grants have helped fund 140 projects in Utah, said Max Becker, a senior associate with Utah Clean Energy.
Energy tax credits have also created jobs for electricians across the state, said Codey Lindsay, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 345, because they have helped fund projects in Utah’s more rural corners.
It took time to get IRA-funded projects up and running, he said. But now that they’re underway, Lindsay’s 3,200-member union is busy.
“We’re starting to see projects made possible by these credits take off across the state, including in rural areas,” Lindsay said. “Energy tax credits work. That is how we get investment here, and we’re ready to build it when [Utahns] get those projects.”
It’s unclear what Congress will do with IRA-funded energy tax credits.
“They’re being discussed,” Becker said when asked whether such credits were under threat under Trump’s administration. “I think threatened might be a strong term.”
Trump has called for eliminating some IRA tax incentives, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith called the Biden Administration’s “green new tax scam” a “bad tax policy” in an in a recent interview with Fox News.
Northern Utah’s U.S. Congressman Blake Moore serves on the Ways and Means Committee.
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
