U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack toured Snake River Brewing in Jackson yesterday. His department's Rural Energy for America Program - called REAP for short - gave the brewery a $13,000 grant to put solar panels on its roof.
Vilsack says that REAP shows how government can give small businesses a hand.
"Here's a place where the government is making a difference. You might have done this at some point in time, but you would not have done it now but for the REAP grant."
The Brewery's Chris Erickson agrees.
“The REAP grant is really the thing that motivated us to pull the trigger. I mean we were this close and when that part came in we were just like now it is a no-brainer.”
The solar installation is expected to save the brewery about $2,000 a year on its utility bill. The Agriculture Department has granted nearly half a million dollars to Wyoming businesses under the program to install renewable energy or improve energy efficiencies.