EPA moves to cancel $7 billion in grants for solar energy

By Mazine Joselow

The Trump administration is preparing to terminate $7 billion in federal grants intended to help low- and moderate-income families install solar panels on their homes, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The Environmental Protection Agency is drafting termination letters to the 60 state agencies, nonprofit groups and Native American tribes that received the grants under the “Solar for All” program, with the goal of sending the letters by the end of this week, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

If finalized, the move would escalate the Trump administration’s efforts to claw back billions of dollars in grants awarded under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s signature climate law. And it would be certain to draw legal challenges from the grant recipients, many of whom have pursued projects in Republican-led states.

“If leaders in the Trump administration move forward with this unlawful attempt to strip critical funding from communities across the United States, we will see them in court,” said Kym Meyer, litigation director at the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization.

Representatives for the EPA did not initially respond to a request for comment. After this article was published, Carolyn Holran, an EPA spokesperson, said that no final decision had been made on the grants.

“EPA is working to ensure Congressional intent is fully implemented in accordance with the law,” Holran wrote in an email.

Already, the EPA has sought to cancel $20 billion out of the $27 billion in climate grants authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act. That move has prompted a drawn-out legal battle and a widening controversy involving the EPA, the Justice Department, the FBI and Citibank, where the funds are being held.

The Solar for All program was not only intended to help low- and moderate-income homeowners go solar. It was also meant to expand community solar initiatives, which bring solar power to people who don’t own their own homes or otherwise can’t install their own panels.

The program was projected to help 900,000 households access solar energy, according to estimates by the Biden administration. The idea was to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the burning of which is dangerously heating the planet, while also helping to lower electricity bills. The participating households were expected to collectively save more than $350 million each year on utility costs.

Under the Biden administration, the EPA awarded all $7 billion that Congress had allocated to the Solar for All program. Of that money, roughly $53 million has been spent so far, according to an analysis by Atlas Public Policy, a research firm.

That means the program has only reached a small fraction of the 900,000 households it aimed to serve. Still, households that have already installed solar panels through the program are unlikely to be affected by any repeal effort, experts said.

Indigenized Energy, a nonprofit group led by Native Americans, completed the country’s first two Solar for All projects in October 2024. The group installed residential solar and battery storage systems for members of the Chippewa Cree Tribe in Box Elder, Montana, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Porcupine and Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

“One in 5 households on reservations lack access to electricity, and this program was an opportunity to close that gap,” said Cody Two Bears, the CEO of Indigenized Energy. “But those were just two kickoff projects to show what was coming for the next five years.”

On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order declaring a national energy emergency. But his administration has been withdrawing federal support for renewable energy like wind and solar power while encouraging the production and use of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal.

Michelle Moore, the CEO of Groundswell, a nonprofit group that received a roughly $156 million grant, said revoking the award would undermine Trump’s claims of an energy emergency.

“This country needs all of the electrons that it can get,” Moore said. “This country is short on power. If you want natural gas, the combined-cycle natural gas turbines are backlogged out five to seven years.”

The other grant recipients include several state agencies and nonprofit groups in Republican-led states, including the Georgia Bright Communities Coalition, the South Carolina Office of Resilience, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

On Monday, the Georgia Bright Communities Coalition opened an initiative to provide free rooftop solar panels to about 800 Georgia households, using roughly $156 million from a Solar for All grant. The group said qualifying households that earned 80% of their area’s median income would be randomly selected in raffles for a fully prepaid solar lease that would reduce their monthly electric bills by as much as 70%.