Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds granted by the Biden administration that would go directly to environmental organizations were rescinded by the Trump Administration last month. These were intended to implement the 30×30 agenda.
The IRA added funds to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) to the tune of $1.5 billion.
This funding was in addition to the normal Farm Bill appropriations. However, along with the additional funds, the IRA quietly changed the program’s language from assisting landowners to controlling agriculture production and mitigating climate change. Environmentalists refer to the sleight-of-hand as “climate smart” programs.
Secretary Brooke Rollins and the Trump administration understood the changes the Biden administration made to the Farm Bill and cancelled 69 projects scheduled to receive the Biden IRA funding. $500 million of the original $1.5 billion had already been awarded by the previous administration leaving $1 billion IRA funding in the RCPP.
The Trump administration rescinded this funding, but did not actually cancel any contracts obligating IRA funding. They merely cancelled applications that were in pre-approval or application stage, giving them the authority to rescind the funds.
This cancelling of the 69 projects and rescinding of the remaining IRA funding removes all the restrictive “climate smart” language from the conservation program and returns the program to its original funding level of $400 million and its “established conservation priorities.”
The Biden administration intended to use the IRA funding to potentially add another 225 million acres to the protected 30×30 status. If accomplished, this would have represented over 56 percent of the additional 400 million acres Biden wanted by 2030.
The Farm Bill language changed by the IRA required agricultural producers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change and created a path for the federal government to manage agricultural production.
Some of the funds would have been used to lock up more land in conservation easements (CEs) in perpetuity essentially giving the government or a land trust control of the land forever making landowners the subservient owners. Progressive Farmer reported that one of the grants rescinded was to the Legacy Land Conservancy (LLC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were banking on the $24.67 million grant to place up to 4,000 acres of farmland in CEs located in southeastern Michigan.
The RCPP funds, as well as all of the federal conservation programs, also create a federal nexus to the private land potentially triggering other federal laws and future restrictions.
The withdrawal of the IRA funding from the USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program proves the Trump administration understands that the Biden administration’s agenda was to control private property and destroy American agriculture.
Promises made, promises kept.
