Feds award thousands for energy programs

The federal government is sending one-and-a-quarter million dollars to Iowa to help finance eight projects that involve renewable energy or moves to make businesses more energy efficient. The money comes from U-S-D-A Rural Development, and Iowan Tom Dorr is the undersecretary of agriculture in charge. Dorr says initiatives like these will create significant new economic opportunities for rural America. Dorr, a controversial choice to serve as a U-S-D-A official, says the Bush Administration understands the challenges facing rural Iowa families and communities, “while realizing there is the need for the right kind of Washington support — the kind of support that stimulates and sustains growth rather than impedes or creates a new kind of dependency.”. Dorr says no grant will pay for more than a quarter of a project’s cost, and no project can get more than half of its financing from government grants or loans. The following projects received money: the Bee Kleen Linen and Uniform Service in O’Brien County; the Chapman Lumber Company of Delaware County; the Consumers Energy Cooperative of Marshall County; the Maharishi Vedic City Organic Farms of Jefferson County; Kathryn Neighbor of Linn County; Neppel Energy of Dickinson County; Northern Iowa Wind Power II of Worth County and Sjerp and Natalie Ysselstein of Sioux County.