The Trump administration is preparing to terminate $7 billion in federal grants intended to help low- and moderate-income families install solar panels on their homes, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The Environmental Protection Agency is drafting termination letters to the 60 state agencies, nonprofit groups and Native American tribes that received the grants under the “Solar for All” program, with the goal of sending the letters by the end of this week, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
If finalized, the move would escalate the Trump administration’s efforts to claw back billions of dollars in grants awarded under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s signature climate law. And it would be certain to draw legal challenges from the grant recipients, many of whom have pursued projects in Republican-led states.
“If leaders in the Trump administration move forward with this unlawful attempt to strip critical funding from communities across the United States, we will see them in court,” said Kym Meyer, litigation director at the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization.
Representatives for the E.P.A. did not initially respond to a request for comment. After this article was published, Carolyn Holran, an E.P.A. spokeswoman, said that no final decision had been made on the grants.
“E.P.A. is working to ensure Congressional intent is fully implemented in accordance with the law,” Ms. Holran wrote in an email.
Already, the E.P.A. has sought to cancel $20 billion out of the $27 billion in climate grants authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act. That move has prompted a drawn-out legal battle and a widening controversy involving the E.P.A., the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Citibank, where the funds are being held.
Under the Biden administration, the E.P.A. awarded all $7 billion under the Solar for All program. It is unclear how much of the money has been spent so far.
The Solar for All program was not only intended to help low- and moderate-income homeowners go solar. It was also meant to expand community solar initiatives, which bring solar power to people who don’t own their own homes or otherwise can’t install their own panels.
The program was projected to help 900,000 households access solar energy, according to estimates by the Biden administration. The idea was to reduce the use of fossil fuels, the burning of which is dangerously heating the planet, while also helping to lower electricity bills. The participating households were expected to collectively save more than $350 million each year on utility costs.
Michelle Moore, the chief executive of Groundswell, a nonprofit group that received a roughly $156 million grant, said revoking the award would undermine the Trump administration’s efforts to address soaring electricity demand fueled by artificial intelligence data centers.
“This country needs all of the electrons that it can get,” Ms. Moore said. “This country is short on power. If you want natural gas, the combined-cycle natural gas turbines are backlogged out five to seven years.”
The other grant recipients include several state agencies and nonprofit groups in Republican-led states, including the Georgia Bright Communities Coalition, the South Carolina Office of Resilience, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
On Monday, the Georgia Bright Communities Coalition opened an initiative to provide free rooftop solar panels to about 800 Georgia households, using roughly $156 million from a Solar for All grant. The group said qualifying households that earned 80 percent of their area’s median income would be randomly selected in a raffle for a fully prepaid solar lease that would reduce their monthly electric bills by as much as 70 percent.
Maxine Joselow reports on climate policy for The Times.
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