The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to cancel $7 billion in federal grants from a Biden administration program intended to help low-income households install solar panels. 

The EPA is drafting termination letters to the 60 nonprofit groups and state agencies that received grants from the Solar for All program, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The Solar for All program is part of the Biden administration’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was established as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed by Democrats and signed by former President Joe Biden. 

Recommended Stories

• Entirety of Colorado’s congressional delegation asks Trump to release Colorado River funds
• Chemical giants agree to pay New Jersey $875 million for 'forever chemicals' pollution
• Gas prices: Slight increase at the pumps to begin August

The fund received a total of $27 billion, including $7 billion for a solar program called Solar for All and $20 billion to eight nonprofit organizations through two other initiatives: the National Clean Investment Fund and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator. 

The move is part of the administration’s efforts to withdraw funding from the IRA that doesn’t align with its agenda. President Donald Trump has criticized the distribution of funds to support renewable energy initiatives such as solar and wind. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed last month by Republicans, slashed hundreds of billions of dollars in IRA tax credits meant to promote clean energy.

The administration’s efforts to cancel the $7 billion in grants from Solar for All will likely face legal challenges, as the EPA is undergoing a separate lawsuit for its attempts to withdraw the program’s other $20 billion.

Earlier this year, the EPA moved to terminate $20 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s other two initiatives. Three grantees — Climate United, the Coalition for Green Capital, and Power Forward Communities — are bringing legal challenges to the EPA.

​​EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has claimed that the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s grant money was improperly distributed because it was routed through Citibank with little oversight. The EPA froze the funds for eight weeks and attempted to cancel $20 billion in grants from eight nonprofit organizations in the program.

EPA DELAYS METHANE RULE FOR OIL AND GAS AS ROLLBACK LOOMS

Zeldin has called the funds “gold bars,” referring to a video last year in which a former EPA employee said the Biden administration was trying to disburse promised funds quickly before the next administration.

“It truly feels like we’re on the Titanic, and we’re throwing like gold bars off the edge,” the former employee said in the video.