California regulators, solar energy advocates denounce EPA decision to end Solar for All program
California regulators and solar industry stakeholders are denouncing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to eliminate the Solar for All grant program, designed to bring solar energy to low-income households.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the termination of the $7 billion program on Thursday, initiated in 2023 under the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, calling it a "boondoggle" and a "grift" that he claimed was being diluted by middlemen taking cuts from the awarded grants.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission, California Energy Commission, and Labor and Workforce Development Agency called the EPA's ending of the program "unlawful," saying it would increase the cost of community solar and storage projects in the state.
California's share of the grants includes $250 million for community solar projects administered through the CPUC, CEC and LWDA. The grants were part of the Biden EPA's $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which the Trump administration has frozen, a move that prompted multiple lawsuits and injunctions.
The joint statement from California regulators said an EPA-approved work plan was created with stakeholder input, and the Solar for All funding was made available on March 24.
"Congress appropriated these funds with a clear mandate," the statement said. "Revoking them now undermines our legal system and destabilizes ongoing projects."
Sach Constantine, Executive Director at San Francisco-based advocacy group Vote Solar, said in a prepared statement that the EPA's ending of Solar for All grants is part of an overall attack on clean energy and access to energy solutions.
"The EPA's move to cancel Solar for All grants and claw back contractually obligated funding is deeply alarming," Constantine said. "Now, communities that were promised a path to affordable energy solutions are being abandoned – left in the lurch just as they were preparing to break ground. With projects stalled, thousands of clean energy jobs will be at risk – jobs that would have gone to local workers in the very communities this program was meant to uplift."
The CPUC was also blamed for not distributing the state's $250 million award, which was announced in April 2024. According to Atlas Public Policy, California has only spent $100,641 of the funds, compared to Illinois, which has spent $11 million of its $156 million grant.
"The PUC's slow-walking of this process has likely squandered $250 million in federal support," Matthew Freedman, attorney with The Utility Reform Network, told Politico. "As of today, we have no program, no development, federal tax credits that are about to sunset, and now an announcement that Solar for All funding is going to be pulled by the Trump administration."
The CPUC said Thursday that "California is already well underway in implementing its Solar for All grant" and has listed its progress on its website.