WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday terminated a $7 billion grant program that was intended to help pay for residential solar projects for more than 900,000 lower-income U.S. households.
It's the latest Trump administration move hindering the nation's shift to cleaner energy.
The funding, part of Democratic President Joe Biden's Solar for All program, was awarded to 60 recipients including states, tribes and regions for investments such as rooftop solar and community solar gardens.
Solar, a renewable energy, is widely regarded as a way to introduce cleaner power onto the electrical grid and lower energy bills for American consumers.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement on social media that authority for the program was eliminated under the tax-and-spending bill signed last month by Republican President Donald Trump. The law eliminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that was approved under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The fund set aside $20 billion in "green bank" money for community development projects to boost renewable energy, and an additional $7 billion for the solar program.
"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 said. "Today, the Trump EPA is announcing that we are ending Solar for All for good, saving US taxpayers ANOTHER $7 BILLION!"
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, who introduced the Solar for All program to slash electric bills for working families, called Zeldin's action illegal.
"Solar for All means lower utility bills, many thousands of good-paying jobs and real action to address the existential threat of climate change,? Sanders said in a statement. "At a time when working families are getting crushed by skyrocketing energy costs and the planet is literally burning, sabotaging this program isn't just wrong -- it's absolutely insane. We will fight back to preserve this enormously important program."
The Trump administration has already targeted the "green bank" funds, first freezing the grants, then terminating the agreements altogether. Zeldin called them "a clear cut case of waste and abuse" and a "gold bar" scheme earlier this year.
The EPA has argued that the tax and policy bill law repealed the green bank and allows the agency to rescind the money it has already obligated. The recipients of that money disagree. They say the bulk of the money had already been disbursed and isn't affected by the law.
Grant recipients have filed lawsuits challenging the administration's actions, and a judge ruled in April the EPA cannot freeze the contracts.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee, called Zeldin's elimination of the solar program a betrayal "that will further hike electricity costs and make our power grid less reliable."
"Trump is -- yet again -- putting his fossil fuel megadonors first," he added.
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St. John reported from Detroit.
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