EPA cancels $7 billion Biden-era grant program to boost solar energy
[August 08, 2025] By
ALEXA ST. JOHN and MATTHEW DALY
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.”
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Theodore Tanczuk, left, and Brayan Santos, of solar installer
YellowLite, put solar panels on the roof of a home in Lakewood,
Ohio, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
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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