Greene's Company One of Two in Alabama Selected to Assist with REAP

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Rural Development selected alumnus Samuel T. Greene’s Blue Phoenix Consulting to provide technical assistance to agricultural producers and small businesses for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). The USDA made $145 million in funding available through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. Funding for loan and grant awards through REAP is designed to help agricultural producers and rural small business owners make energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy investments to lower energy costs, generate new income, and strengthen the resiliency of their operations.

“Our work is primarily with agricultural producers throughout the state and small businesses in rural areas with 50,000 residents or less,” says Greene. “Often, small and rural business owners aren’t familiar with the challenges required to receive federal assistance. The process can be tedious and even confusing, resulting in a lack of participation in federal programming within rural communities.

The USDA hired Blue Phoenix to provide workshops, technical reports, and energy audits to ensure those entities are equipped with the necessary tools and information to complete their applications successfully.

“Mr. Greene was selected because we wanted to work with produce farmers and other small businesses that haven’t had a seat at the table,” says Nivory Gordon, Jr., Alabama State Director for USDA Rural Development. “REAP is a program that can improve their businesses and help them save money.”

A native of the Black Belt region of Alabama, Greene earned his political science degree and master’s degree in urban and regional planning at AAMU. He says he started Blue Phoenix a year ago to provide services to mostly smaller and minority serving communities that may not have the means to get access to information for federal government programs. The company is based in Huntsville, but has satellite offices in the Black Belt.

“I will be providing 100 percent technical assistance,” says Greene. “I can assist them with applying and registering their businesses. I will do their applications, audits and technical reports. I also go in and examine the conditions their businesses and advise them on proper projects that will be applicable under this program and carry them through that process.

Greene has served as a legislative aide and outreach coordinator in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Madison County Commission. In 2022, The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) appointed Greene chief strategy and communications officer under the Biden-Harris Administration.

More: https://www.rd.usda.gov/inflation-reduction-act/rural-energy-america-program-reap