Trump EPA faces lawsuits over axed solar program
Joe Duhownik
PHOENIX (CN) — Leading a coalition of states and clean energy grant recipients, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes lodged her second lawsuit against the federal government in just two days, accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of illegally ending a $7 billion program that would have brought solar energy to more than 900,000 low-income families across the country, including 11,000 in Arizona.
In the most recent lawsuit filed Thursday morning, Mayes and leaders from 22 other states say EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin illegally withdrew 90% of funds already allocated to recipients across the country, thanks to a misinterpretation of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Republican Party’s flagship tax and spending law. In the federal complaint filed in the Western District of Washington, Mayes says the unlawful cancellation runs in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act and the Separation of Powers Doctrine.
“The unprecedented, illegal cancellation of this critical program is simply unacceptable,” Mayes said in a Thursday press conference with co-plaintiff California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Without this program, for many Arizonans, clean energy will be out of reach.”
Arizona and other grant recipients also sued Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to recover damages for unlawfully breaching the contracts that governed the grant agreements. The two lawsuits make up the 27th and 28th federal lawsuits Mayes has filed or joined against Trump since he took office in January. Mayes says the suits have already saved $1.5 billion in funding that would have otherwise been held from Arizona.
“The ROI on these lawsuits is absolutely enormous,” she said.
Congress established the Solar for All program in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, directing the EPA to make competitive grants to states and other entities to deploy solar projects in low-income and disadvantaged areas. By August 2024, the EPA had awarded all of the program funds to the plaintiff states and other grant recipients, spurring the plaintiffs to begin developing their projects. Arizona received nearly $156 million in Solar for All funding.
But the EPA abruptly terminated the program in August 2025, clawing back the vast majority of the money already awarded.
Mayes says the $156 million awarded to the state would have led to equivalent energy bill savings for participating households as well as thousands of new jobs through Arizona’s solar industry. The 61 megawatts of new clean energy would have prevented at least 90,000 tons of CO2 emissions from Arizona’s atmosphere each year, she adds.
“It’s not just home and neighborhood solar programs put at risk,” Mayes said. “Millions of dollars in support funding for essential industry stakeholders have also been canceled by the Trump administration:
“Thirty-five million dollars to integrate rooftop solar into the purchase of new homes — canceled,” she continued. “Eleven million to support thousands of new jobs for energy infrastructure — gone. And the 16.7 million that Arizona was planning to use to support community lenders that help small businesses and families transition to solar energy — D.O.A.”
The EPA says cutting the program was bound by law, falling in line with Trump’s prioritization of the fossil fuel industry and exclusion of solar.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill eliminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which included a $7 billion pot called ‘Solar for All’ … The bottom line is this: EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive,” Zeldin wrote in a social media post on Aug. 7. “Today, the Trump EPA is announcing that we are ending Solar for All for good, saving US taxpayers ANOTHER $7 BILLION!”
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act directed the EPA in July to cut “unobligated balances” from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act. But because the vast majority of the $7 billion Solar for All funding had already been allocated almost a year prior, Mayes says the “obligated funding” must remain.
The complaint echoes a similar argument made in a lawsuit filed last week by conservationists who say they’d benefit from the switch to clean energy.
“Families all over the country were counting on energy bill relief that disappeared overnight when the administration unlawfully terminated Solar for All,” Nick Torrey, a Southern Environmental Law Center attorney representing the plaintiffs in last week’s suit, said in a statement.
The Hopi Tribe, through its Hopi Utilities Corporation, received a $25 million Solar for All grant to install solar panels and battery storage in homes across the Hopi Reservation in Northeastern Arizona. The Solar for All program would have improved energy access for nearly 600 Hopi homes, many of which had never before had access to electricity, Mayes says.
“We will not let the EPA abandon its commitment to fund solar energy projects that would lower costs for more than 900,000 households,” Mayes said.
The EPA declined to comment on pending litigation.