WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Network denounces in the strongest terms the abrupt and arbitrary efforts to terminate EPA’s $7 billion Solar for All program, a vital initiative designed to deliver affordable, resilient solar energy to nearly one million low-income households across every state, territory and Tribal Nation.
“Communities promised relief from punishing energy costs are now left in the dark,” said Zealan Hoover, former EPA senior advisor. “Nearly a million families will pay hundreds of dollars more each year for their electricity bill because the Trump Administration killed a program that would have more than paid for itself.”
Launched under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Solar for All was already underway via 60 grants in all 50 states and U.S. territories. The program was structured to:
- Save nearly 1 million households $400 per year while keeping the lights on during extreme weather, disasters and blackouts;
- Deliver $8 billion in total household utility savings over lifetime of the solar panels installed;
- Create hundreds of thousands of good-paying, union-supported jobs paying prevailing wages in the clean energy economy;
- Allocate 100% of funds to low- and middle-income households, including more than $500 million for Tribal households;
- Cut or avoid 30 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions — equivalent to removing over 7 million cars from the road.
These investments were more than financial; they were a lifeline. From Florida to Alaska, Solar for All supported community solar, rooftop installations and storage projects that provided guaranteed savings, resilience during outages and energy ownership for residents of affordable housing, Tribal lands, and other underserved areas. Every qualified project was required to reduce household electricity costs by at least 20 percent.
Administrator Zeldin’s statement in a video on X announcing the planned terminations was filled with misleading information that should not be taken at face value when reporting on this concerning development. Notably his statement:
- Falsely states that EPA does not have authority to implement the program by citing the HR 1 rescission package even though that legislation only applied to funding that had not been awarded and the repeal does not apply retroactively.
- Calls the program out for being slow to build even though it is his agency’s own funding freezes and disruption that have held back low-cost solar from low income households.
- Mischaracterizes a short-term waiver. Zeldin says the entire program is “great news for China” because it was covered under a short-term, partial Build America, Buy America waiver. However, this waiver expires at the end of 2025 and is projected to cover less than 1% of program expenditures.
- Implies that Solar for All is financially irresponsible. He references “middlemen taking their own cut” even though most of the grants flow to states and Tribes leveraging EPA’s decades of experience with such grants. Furthermore, the 15% that he references is the indirect cost rate set under OMB’s regulations for all federal grant awards and not set by EPA.
This effort to terminate Solar for All is not an isolated event; it is part of a coordinated and dangerous dismantling of federal environmental protections. It follows the repeal of the Endangerment Finding, severe cuts to EPA enforcement capacity and the defunding of environmental justice programs. These actions collectively undermine EPA’s core mission and abandon science-based policymaking in favor of short-term political gain.
“Terminating these grants midstream is not just reckless; it’s legally and procedurally indefensible,” said Jim Drummond, former lead grants attorney in EPA’s Office of General Counsel. “The grants were awarded in accordance with established federal grant regulations and EPA’s strong competition policies. To break these commitments retroactively not only undermines the rule of law, it also potentially exposes the federal government to liability and erodes trust in public institutions. In my opinion, this is a violation of basic administrative accountability.”
The Environmental Protection Network urges Congress to investigate this unlawful termination of a program clearly directed in statute and calls on state and local leaders, utilities, labor unions and community advocates to demand the restoration of these grants. Silence is not an option. Public health, energy affordability and a livable climate are on the line.
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Founded in 2017, the Environmental Protection Network harnesses the expertise of more than 650 former EPA career staff and confirmation-level appointees from Democratic and Republican administrations to provide the unique perspective of former scientists and regulators with decades of historical and subject matter knowledge.