Nearly two dozen states sue to stop Trump ending $7bn solar grant program | Trump administration
Nearly two dozen states are suing the Trump administration over the cancellation of a $7 billion grant program aimed at expanding solar power in low-income communities, according to court documents.
In a statement Thursday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced two lawsuits filed by a group of states that received grants under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All program. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the end of the program in August. The agency said in an email that it would not comment on pending litigation.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said canceling the program would affect 900,000 low-income households nationwide. Some 11,000 low-income households in Arizona will see their energy bills increase by 20% after the state lost $156 million to Solar for All.
The lawsuit is one of dozens that the nation’s 23 Democratic attorneys general have filed against the Trump administration on issues ranging from withholding federal grants to immigration and deploying National Guard troops in cities. “Without this program, for many Arizonians, clean energy will be out of reach,” Mayes said in an online call.
The first suit seeks damages and was filed Wednesday in the Court of Federal Claims. A second lawsuit will seek to reinstate the program and is expected to be filed later Thursday in federal court in Washington state, Bonta’s statement said.
California will lose about $250 million in funds committed by Congress to the program, Bonta said.
“The Trump administration is trying to keep us in the past, tethered to fossil fuel companies,” he said on the online call. “In doing so, Trump is making America more expensive and more polluted. » The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by Donald Trump in July, eliminated the funding source for a program that Zeldin called a “mess.” The president has cut federal support for solar and wind power, calling renewable resources costly and unreliable.
Mayes said canceling the program would hit disadvantaged communities, citing the Hopi tribe of northern Arizona, which was to receive a $25 million grant to provide electricity, often for the first time, to hundreds of homes through solar panels and battery storage systems.
The complaints come 10 days after a group of solar companies and unions also sued to reinstate the program.
In addition to California and Arizona, states participating in the lawsuits include Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the city of Washington DC.
While Democrats are in the minority in both houses of Congress and many Democratic governors are reluctant to antagonize Trump, attorneys general have actively challenged the legality of Trump’s policies.
