Business owners and nonprofits have filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its termination of a residential solar program worth billions of dollars.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill eliminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which included a $7 billion pot called ‘Solar for All,’” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced on social media upon terminating the program. “In some cases, your tax dollars were diluted through up to FOUR pass-through entities, each taking their own cut off the top! 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.”
According to the lawsuit, the termination is “unlawful,” as Congress previously created and funded the program to “provide low-income households and disadvantaged communities with savings on their electricity bills and affordable energy through rooftop and community solar programs.”
“Instead of distributing the Solar for All funds as Congress directed, Defendants hastily and unlawfully terminated the Solar for All program. Defendants’ action to terminate the program violates the law in multiple ways,” the lawsuit adds, going on to claim, “If Defendants’ unlawful termination of the Solar for All program is allowed to stand, nearly one million low-income households will lose access to affordable, resilient solar in communities in all states and territories, and hundreds of thousands of good-paying, high-quality jobs will be lost, especially in the low-income and disadvantaged communities Congress intended these funds to benefit.”
The Biden-era program, announced in 2024, was funded through the Inflation Reduction Act. “The 60 selections under the $7 billion Solar for All program will provide funds to states, territories, Tribal governments, municipalities, and nonprofits across the country to develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar, lowering energy costs for families, creating good-quality jobs in communities that have been left behind, advancing environmental justice and tackling climate change,” the Biden EPA explained at the time.
