Several Republican-led states have ended programs that helped low-income communities install solar panels, aligning with the Trump Environmental Protection Agency’s move to claw back the initiative’s federal funding.
In August, the EPA announced it would move to cancel $7 billion from its Solar for All program. The initiative is part of the Biden administration’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was established as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act passed by Democrats. It awarded funding to 60 states and nonprofit groups to help install solar energy and storage across the nation.
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The Biden EPA stated that the program would save households approximately $400 per year in electricity bills. But Republican-led states such as Louisiana, Tennessee, and Utah have since announced they are ending their own Solar for All programs in response to the EPA’s decision to rescind the funds. The program’s grantees, including state governments, have an option to dispute the EPA’s move to repeal the Solar for All funds 30 days after receiving the termination letter.
Louisiana’s energy and natural resources department, which ended its program in early August, told the Washington Examiner via email: “The EPA gave notice that the federal program was being terminated, and our Office of Energy wound the state program down accordingly. The final work plan for carrying out the program had not yet been approved by the EPA, so there was not any significant project work to be impacted.”
Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) criticized the state’s “Solar for Y’all” initiative on social media, following the EPA’s effort to rescind its funding.
“The only thing that’s driven your electricity bills through the roof is the Democrat Party. Period. End of story,” Landry wrote on X in August.
“From Obama’s unconstitutional Clean Power Plan… to the fantasyland Green New Deal… to Biden’s $156 million Louisiana ‘Solar for All’ giveaway – every single one of these schemes bleeds taxpayers dry, drives up rates, and leaves our grid weaker than ever,” Landry said. He added that these types of policies and programs have driven up electricity costs.
Louisiana had previously been open to using the funds. In 2024, Tyler Gray, Landry’s secretary of the Department of Energy and Natural Resources, said the state is “uniquely positioned to benefit” from the program, the Louisiana Illuminator reported.
Meanwhile, Democratic-led California has called the EPA’s move to terminate funding “unlawful” and said it is underway in implementing its Solar for All grants.
“Congress appropriated these funds with a clear mandate. Revoking them now undermines our legal system and destabilizes ongoing projects,” California’s Energy Commission said in August. It added that the California Public Utilities Commission, California Energy Commission, and Labor and Workforce Development Agency “urge the EPA to reverse its unlawful termination.”
President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July, repealed unobligated funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Utah’s Office of Energy Development cited the megatax bill as the reason for ending its own Solar for All program.
“The EPA ended the program in response to the repeal of Section 134 of the Clean Air Act by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” it said in a statement. “Although Utah remains committed to its any-of-the-above energy approach, the Utah Office of Energy Development is unable to move forward with its Solar for All program.”
Zealan Hoover, a former senior adviser at the EPA, previously told the Washington Examiner that the Solar for All program is designed to help nearly 1 million low- and middle-income families save on their electricity bills by installing solar panels and storage systems on rooftops or through nearby community solar facilities.
The program’s termination “takes four gigawatts of energy off the table at a moment when we have serious concerns about our ability to meet rising demand from [artificial intelligence] and other industries,” said Hoover, who also works as an independent adviser to the Environmental Protection Network.
“It is one of the last remaining pressure relief valves for families that are grappling with rapidly increasing electricity prices,” he added.
The latest Consumer Price Index report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that electricity prices increased by 6.2% for the year ending in August — more than twice the overall inflation rate of 2.9%.
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The EPA’s decision is part of a broader effort to dismantle programs funded by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The agency is currently engaged in a legal battle as it seeks to cancel funding for other initiatives under the program, including the National Clean Investment Fund and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator.
The EPA has claimed that under the Biden administration, funds were being disbursed rapidly with limited oversight before the Trump administration took office. The effort to rescind the Solar for All program will likely bring additional legal challenges against the EPA.