WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday terminated a $7 billion grant program intended to help pay for residential solar projects for more than 900,000 lower-income U.S. households, in the latest Trump administration move hindering the nation’s shift to cleaner energy.
The funding, part of the Biden-era’s Solar for All program, was awarded to 60 recipients including states, tribes and regions for investments such as rooftop solar and community solar gardens. Solar, a renewable energy, is widely regarded as a way to introduce cleaner power onto the electrical grid and lower energy bills for American consumers.
Under Republican President Donald Trump, officials have pursued dozens of deregulatory measures related to federal rules intended to protect clean air and water. Last week, the EPA proposed rescinding the agency’s “endangerment finding” which serves as the scientific and legal basis for regulating planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
The administration has taken steps to bolster fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas as it pursues American “energy dominance in the global market.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement on social media that authority for the solar program was eliminated under the tax-and-spending law signed by Trump last month. It eliminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, approved under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, that set aside $20 billion for community development projects to boost renewable energy and an additional $7 billion for the solar program.
“The bottom line is this: EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive,″ Zeldin said. “Today, the Trump EPA is announcing that we are ending Solar for All for good, saving US taxpayers ANOTHER $7 BILLION!”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, who introduced the Solar for All program to cut electric bills for working families, said Zeldin’s action was illegal.
“Solar for All means lower utility bills, many thousands of good-paying jobs and real action to address the existential threat of climate change,″ Sanders said in a statement. ”At a time when working families are getting crushed by skyrocketing energy costs and the planet is literally burning, sabotaging this program isn’t just wrong — it’s absolutely insane. We will fight back to preserve this enormously important program.”
Only $53 million of the $7 billion awarded has been spent, according to a tally by the research firm Atlas Public Policy. Several grant recipients this week said their programs were in planning phases.
Stephanie Bosh, senior vice president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said the EPA has no legal authority to terminate grants already appropriated by Congress.
“These grants are delivering billions of dollars of investment to red and blue states alike,″ she said. Bosh said solar was one of the cheapest energy sources at a time of growing demand for electricity.
“This administration is continuing to dig itself into a hole,” she said.
The EPA has argued that the tax and policy law allows the agency to rescind the money it has already obligated. The recipients of that money disagree, saying the bulk of the money had already been disbursed and is not affected by the law.
Southern Environmental Law Center litigation director Kym Meyer said if the administration wants to move forward with canceling Solar for All funds, “we will see them in court.”
Grant recipients have already challenged the administration’s actions, and a judge ruled in April the EPA cannot freeze the contracts.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee, called Zeldin’s elimination of the solar program a betrayal “that will further hike electricity costs and make our power grid less reliable.”
“Trump is — yet again — putting his fossil fuel megadonors first,” he added.
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St. John reported from Detroit.
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