Groups Sue EPA Over Canceled $7 Billion Solar Program Intended to Help Poorer Americans

Source: US News and World Report/AP

Oct. 6, 2025, at 1:29 p.m.


Several groups and nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit Monday against the Environmental Protection Agency over the canceling of a $7 billion Solar for All program intended to make solar power accessible to more than 900,000 lower-income Americans.

They say the Trump administration's termination of the program was illegal and they want a federal judge to direct the EPA to reinstate it. The program is affiliated with another $20 billion in green funding also terminated under President Donald Trump that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin had characterized as a fraudulent scheme fraught with waste.

The EPA said in an email Monday that it does not comment on litigation. The lawsuit is the latest legal action against the administration amid its assault on clean energy policy and related funding and programs across the country. Trump has moved to boost production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal.

The lawsuit filed in Rhode Island by the Rhode Island AFL-CIO labor organization and others — including the public interest law center Rhode Island Center for Justice and the nonprofit Solar United Neighbors — detailed the importance of the program for local workforces and lower-income communities looking for access to clean-energy project funding. Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said Monday that the program's termination kills jobs and will drive up electricity prices.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rhode-island/articles/2025-10-06/groups-sue-epa-over-canceled-7-billion-solar-program-intended-to-help-poorer-americans