A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Friday that the Trump administration unlawfully ended the $7 billion Solar for All program, which was designed to expand access to solar energy for more than 900,000 lower-income Americans.
The Environmental Protection Agency canceled Solar for All funding in August 2025, one month after Congress approved President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending law. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin had labeled the Biden-era grant initiative a “boondoggle.”
In her decision, U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy said Congress had made clear that the EPA was expected to keep administering Solar for All grants that had already been obligated. By terminating the program, the agency acted against congressional intent and lacked any separate legal authority to do so, McElroy wrote. She vacated the termination.
The EPA said Friday that it is reviewing the ruling and weighing whether to appeal.
The Rhode Island lawsuit was brought by the Rhode Island AFL-CIO and other groups, including the public-interest law center Rhode Island Center for Justice and the nonprofit Solar United Neighbors. Their case emphasized the program’s importance for local workers and for lower-income communities seeking funding for clean-energy projects.
Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, described the ruling as “a big victory” for states nationwide.
“If and when the program does get up and running, there will be thousands and thousands of union jobs created across the United States,” Crowley said Friday. “We were proud to be the lead plaintiff.”
Clean and affordable electricity, including solar power, should not be a luxury, said Alex St. Pierre, vice president for environmental justice at the Conservation Law Foundation, one of the nonprofit legal advocacy organizations representing the plaintiffs.
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“Communities have waited long enough,” St. Pierre said in a statement. “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.”
In May, solar generated more of the nation’s electricity than coal for the first time.
The Trump administration has targeted a host of programs and policies dedicated to clean energy. The $7 billion Solar for All program was part of the $27 billion “green bank,” formally known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. It was established in the Democratic-backed climate law passed in 2022 under former President Joe Biden. The attorneys general of more than a dozen states also sued over the canceled solar program funding. A federal judge in Washington dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction in June. The plaintiffs have appealed.
The other $20 billion, also canceled by the Trump administration, was slated for eight community development banks and nonprofit organizations for tens of thousands of projects to combat the effects of climate change, such as residential energy efficiency projects to larger-scale investments such as community cooling. A divided federal appeals court said last month that the Trump administration improperly terminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, handing a win to a coalition of nonprofits picked to run the effort.
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