Waring Testimony

Summary

Written testimony of Sarah Waring, USDA Rural Development State Director for New Hampshire and Vermont, before the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, dated September 13, 2024. The testimony addresses lowering energy costs for small businesses and focuses on the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). It states that under the Inflation Reduction Act the USDA match rose to 50% and maximum grants rose to $1 million for renewable energy systems and $500,000 for energy efficiency upgrades. It includes tables of REAP applications and funding for 2022, 2023 and 2024, reporting $21,988,000 requested in New Hampshire in 2024. The testimony also describes technical assistance partners and says staffing has not kept pace with the rise in applications.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

                                        Testimony Provided by
                                             Sarah Waring
                              USDA Rural Development State Director
                             Before the Senate Small Business Committee
                                         September 13, 2024

Chairwoman Shaheen, thank you for the opportunity today to speak before the Senate Committee
on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on an important issue in New Hampshire and across the
country: lowering energy costs for small businesses. This is a crucial discussion, and I am
honored to be part of this hearing today.

My name is Sarah Waring, and I am the Rural Development State Director for New Hampshire,
the Granite State, and Vermont, the Green Mountain State. First, I would like to offer my
heartfelt condolences to the communities in Grafton and Coos County struggling to recover from
the flooding events in July, and to the farmers and producers managing the impacts of last year’s
devasting May frost. For as long as it takes, the Biden-Harris Administration and USDA will
deploy every resource at our disposal to help families, communities and businesses rebuild their
homes, their lives and their livelihoods.

Like I mentioned, our jurisdiction covers both New Hampshire and Vermont. 70% percent of
New Hampshire residents and 90% of Vermonters live in towns of less than 5,000 people. Both
states have heavily weighted employment percentages toward educational services, health care
and social services—which is why small business development is such an essential topic of
discussion in our region. According to the Small Business Administration, there are over 130,000
small businesses operating in New Hampshire as of 2023, employing 49% of the state’s
workforce. My testimony today will focus on our Rural Energy for America program, but I
would like to take just a moment to share the breadth of programs that our agency offers.

Federal policies emerging out of the Great Depression focused on rural American infrastructure
like electricity, water, and housing. The Rural Electrification Administration, the Farmers Home
Administration and other rural-focused programs were built over decades. Today, RD is a
centralized agency acting as a lender, grantor and partner in projects that improve the quality of
life and economic opportunity for rural residents.

Over the last five years, we’ve invested roughly $1.3 billion in the Twin States. That translates to
more than 3,400 families with safe housing, 570 businesses with lower costs, and 260
community institutions, from town halls and libraries to high schools and hospitals, that have
been built or modernized. Unlike most federal agencies that operate through state and county
governments, our dollars go directly to the homeowners, businesspeople and communities we
serve, so we establish relationships on the ground with our customers that can last generations.

Today, I want to focus my time on the Rural Energy for America Program or REAP. The Biden-
Harris Administration’s historic, bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act saw significant changes to
the program that made the win-win proposition impossible to ignore among small
businesspeople. REAP offers two paths to funding: one for renewable energy projects and the
other for energy efficiency. Before the IRA, REAP offered a quarter match, with the grantee
required to provide 75 percent of project cost while USDA furnished the remaining 25 percent.
During this period, grant amounts maxed out at $500,000 for renewable energy projects and
$250,000 for energy efficiency. Under the IRA, these program elements doubled: The USDA
match went to 50%, and maximum grants increased to $1 million for renewable energy systems
and $500,000 for energy efficiency upgrades. The IRA also provided significant additional
funding of $2 billion to REAP nationwide. Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris
administration, USDA has invested in 7,566 REAP projects totaling over $2.2 billion into rural
America. On average, these projects will lower energy bills by an average of $25,000 annually
for recipients and create enough clean energy to power 630,000 households each year. I want to
share two local stories that illustrate REAP’s cost-saving impacts.
• A Place to Grow is a nature-based childcare business founded and franchised in Brentwood
    by Jen LegereIn 2018, she applied for two small REAP grants; one to weatherize her building
    and the other to install solar. With the combined projects, she saves her business roughly
    $6,000 each year.
• Another great example is Candia First Stoppe, a unique country store/gas station/truck
    stop/restaurant business, where co-owners Joe Sobol and Craig St. Peter jumped at the
    chance to secure an IRA-funded, nearly $838,000 REAP grant in late 2023 to install a 561.6
    kilowatt (kW) solar array. The new system will offset the operation’s electrical power needs,
    translating to more than $133,000 in annual energy savings.

Whether it’s a big or small project, whether pre- or post-IRA, REAP is making a big difference
for bottom lines of small businesses throughout New Hampshire.

There is an additional story here that I believe is vital to share, and it’s about our partners in the
field who provide on-the-ground technical assistance for communities, small businesses and
farmers. These service providers include the New Hampshire Community Development Finance
Authority and Clean Energy New Hampshire. These two organizations were previously funded
through our Community Facilities TA programs, supporting businesses and communities alike.
Now the Energy Circuit Rider program has been significantly expanded through IRA-funded
REAP TA grants, where they work hand-in-hand with businesses to gain access to our program
funding.

However, our supply has not met the demand and the numbers tell the story. In New Hampshire,
we received 26 applications in 2022, 54 applications in 2023 and now 84 applications to date in
2024. New Hampshire customers alone this year are requesting $21 million dollars of energy
improvements and renewable energy projects. When Vermont applications are included, the
demand jumped 100% in 2023, and so far, already 68% in 2024.

 VT and NH *as of 9/5/24
                           2022          2023            2024*
 # Applications            49            99              145
 # Funded Applications     38            71
 $ Requested               $5,175,000     $13,745,000     $36,503,000
 $ Funded                  $3,700,000     $11,280,000     $17,208,835
 NH Only *as of 9/5/24
                           2022         2023            2024*
 # Applications            26           54              84
 # Funded Applications     20           37
 $ Requested               $1,982,000    $7,396,150     $21,988,000
 $ Funded                  $1,862,000    $5,470,000     $12,264,789

This increase in demand is due to the transformative changes of the Inflation Reduction Act, our
agency’s outreach, and our partners on the ground. However, staff are buried under an avalanche
of new applications. Furthermore, REAP is one of dozens of other business, housing, and utilities
programs the Agency offers. Accommodating and adapting to our increased portfolio, both in
number of programs as well as changes to program funding levels, has been incredibly difficult
without corresponding staffing increases. Because of this I wanted to thank you and your
congressional colleagues for highlighting the crucial need in New Hampshire and Vermont to
improve our hiring ability and timing.

In closing today, Senator, I’d like to re-emphasize a few points that I hope you’ll take with you:
- Our programs are effective in driving down costs for small businesses.
- Your work getting the Inflation Reduction Act passed is integral in our work within the
    Biden-Harris Administration to improve the lives of rural residents.
- Our staff work incredibly well, but only as far as the capacity we have to process
    applications.
- Our partners providing technical assistance are crucial resources for our small business
    owners and farmers.

We are sincerely thankful for your time and your efforts, and those of your staff. We look
forward to working with you closely to help rural New Hampshire small businesses thrive and
succeed. Thank you again for including me on this panel and I look forward to a productive
conversation!


File and source

File

Waring_Testimony.pdf

Size

245,079 bytes

SHA-256

71a4d505a321b49566b5f29eeefd33023f6b7ba254d10b9633aa140f73b4244e

Our copy

Waring_Testimony.pdf

Original

No public link identified.