A Federal Judge Ruled the EPA Illegally Killed the $7 Billion Solar for All Program That Was Supposed to Put Panels on the Homes of 900,000 Lower-Income Americans. Lee Zeldin Had Called It a 'Boondoggle.' Congress, the Judge Said, 'Clearly Intended' the Money to Go Out.

A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Friday that the Trump administration broke the law when it terminated Solar for All, the $7 billion program meant to bring rooftop and community solar to more than 900,000 lower-income households, and vacated the cancellation outright.

The Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the funds in August 2025, a month after Congress passed President Donald Trump's tax and spending law, with Administrator Lee Zeldin calling the Biden-era grant program a "boondoggle." District Judge Mary McElroy wrote that Congress clearly intended the EPA to continue administering the Solar for All grants that had already been obligated, and that the agency acted contrary to that intent and without any other statutory authority when it shut the program down. The EPA said Friday it is "reviewing the decision and considering options for appeal."

The suit was brought by the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, the Rhode Island Center for Justice, the nonprofit Solar United Neighbors, a homeowner, solar businesses and community groups, represented by the Conservation Law Foundation, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Lawyers for Good Government and the Lawyers' Committee for Rhode Island. "If and when the program does get up and running, there will be thousands and thousands of union jobs created across the United States," Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said Friday, calling the decision "a big victory" for states across the country. "We were proud to be the lead plaintiff."

Solar for All was one piece of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the so-called green bank created by the 2022 climate law. The EPA awarded the $7 billion to 60 state, tribal and nonprofit grantees in 2024, and the advocacy groups estimate the program would have cut participating families' bills by about $350 million a year and supported roughly 200,000 jobs and training slots. "Communities have waited long enough," said Alex St. Pierre, vice president for environmental justice at the Conservation Law Foundation. "Nearly every family is looking for ways to cut their energy bill. These dollars should go where Congress intended: toward lower energy bills, less climate pollution, good jobs and cleaner air."

"EPA cannot erase a $7 billion program that Congress created and funded," said Jillian Blanchard of Lawyers for Good Government. Nick Torrey, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said that with "electricity bills skyrocketing," low-cost solar projects "are needed now more than ever."

The ruling is the second major legal defeat for the administration's dismantling of the fund. The other $20 billion, earmarked for eight community development banks and nonprofits to finance tens of thousands of projects from home efficiency retrofits to community cooling, was also canceled, and a divided federal appeals court said last month that termination was improper too. More than a dozen state attorneys general sued separately over Solar for All; a federal judge in Washington dismissed that case for lack of jurisdiction in June, and the states have appealed.

The decision comes as solar's share of the grid keeps growing. In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation's electricity than coal. What happens next depends on whether the EPA appeals to the First Circuit and whether it seeks a stay; absent one, McElroy's order restores the grants and requires the agency to resume administering them as Congress directed.