FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 24, 2017
Contact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul released the latest edition of The Waste Report, an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government.
The USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) is intended to help agricultural producers and rural small businesses, so it might surprise taxpayers to learn that the program gave nearly $125,000 of their money to a luxury golf course in the U.S. Virgin Islands to help cover the cost of solar panels.
You can learn more in this week’s Waste Report HERE or below.
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When you think about rural businesses, one of the last things that would come to mind is a luxury golf course on a Caribbean island, but that is exactly where the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sent nearly $125k in rural development grant money last year.
That’s right!!! Your tax dollars went to support the purchase of solar panels for the Carambola Golf Club on St. Croix, USVI.[1]
RURAL?
The Carambola solar project was partially financed under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). To qualify under this program (you know, as rural), a business must meet one of two standards:
- Minimum 50% of gross income comes from agricultural operations, or
- It is located in a non-urbanized area of a city or town with fewer than 50k residents.