Judge rules EPA illegally terminated $7 billion solar program intended to help poorer Americans

The Trump administration illegally terminated a $7 billion Solar for All program intended to make solar power accessible to more than 900,000 lower-income Americans, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Friday.

The Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the Solar for All funds in August 2025 after President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending law passed in Congress a month earlier, with Administrator Lee Zeldin calling the Biden-era grant program a “boondoggle.”

District Judge Mary McElroy wrote in the ruling that Congress clearly intended the EPA to continue administering the Solar for All grants that were already obligated. The EPA acted contrary to this intent and without any ...