News from rural America.

Cuts in money for clean energy could hit rural mom-and-pop businesses hard, Alaska's effort to boost its power grid with wind and solar is threatened, and a small Kansas school district attracts new students with a focus on agriculture.

TRANSCRIPT

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

The future of American clean energy is in limbo as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act takes effect.

The law includes sweeping cuts to tax credits and rebates in 2022's Inflation Reduction Act.

According to Daily Yonder analysis, the bill will impact nearly 300 rural wind and solar projects in 40 states.

Lloyd Ritter is with Green Capital LLC.

The legislation will make rural America less energy dominant.

I think it's going to hit rural mom and pop energy businesses the hardest.

Homeowner tax credits for solar projects expire at the end of the year.

And credits for commercial wind and solar projects will only apply to those that break ground soon.

Analysis by National Economic Research Associates found the cost of residential, commercial, and industrial electricity will rise by nearly 10 percent. for customers in Wyoming, Illinois, New Mexico, and Tennessee.

It's just practical realities that we need more energy, not less, and we shouldn't be picking winners and losers.

In Alaska, the same federal cuts threaten the state's already challenged power supply.

Pierre Lonewolf with the Kotzebue Electric Association says extreme weather across the rugged geography makes the grid fragile.

Village and tribal members had embraced renewables to generate power, But he says the new budget creates obstacles.

That has put the kibosh on our wind projects, which we are partnering with the local tribe to install two more megawatt wind turbines and another megawatt of solar.

Without incentives, the most isolated communities may remain dependent on diesel generators.

Lone Wolf says the war on renewable energy will raise prices in parts of the state that can least afford it.

We don't want to have to raise our prices on electricity, but we have to cover our costs and pay our people.

After years of declining enrollment, one small Kansas school district is attracting new students by focusing on agriculture.

Alana Newman explains.

The Polko Damar-Zurich district will gain about a dozen students drawn to their new Northwest Kansas Agriculture Education Center.

Daily Yonder's Lane Wendell Fisher says the new program will teach real-world farming skills while still teaching traditional subjects.

This school does a lot to provide opportunities for people who don't feel like they have a place in traditional school or have trouble either staying focused or staying on task.

Kids in the program incubate and raise egg-laying chickens and build raised beds to grow vegetables.

The school cafeteria serves the produce thanks to a grant from the Kansas Department of Education.

Algebra can help teach you how to calculate perimeters for fences that you need to know or scaling up projects from a blueprint to a full-size project.

I'm Ilana Newman.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.