More than 20 states sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, challenging the agency's decision to cancel a $7 billion program aimed at making solar energy affordable for low-income households.
The program, called Solar for All, was created in 2022 by the Inflation Relief Act and provided grants for the deployment of rooftop and public solar projects. It was part of the Biden administration's efforts to reduce carbon emissions and would make solar energy more affordable for nearly a million additional U.S. households.
But in August, the EPA announced it was canceling the program and withdrew about 90% of the grant funds from the accounts in which states received awards, the lawsuit says.
The Environmental Protection Agency is aggressively trying to bring back clean energy funding approved by the Biden administration. The new lawsuit will test whether the agency overextended its scope in this case. The states behind the lawsuit hoped the funding would lead to increased supplies of solar energy, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions associated with electricity production and lower energy prices.
“Congress passed a solar program to make energy costs more affordable, but the administration is ignoring the law and focusing on the conspiracy theory that climate change is a hoax,” Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown said in a press release. The EPA's decision “puts about $156 million at risk” for Washington state, according to the report.
Earlier this month, a group of nonprofits and solar installation companies filed a lawsuit similar claim regarding the cancellation of the program.
In response to questions about the new lawsuit, the White House referred NBC News to the Environmental Protection Agency, which declined to comment on the pending litigation, as is its typical practice.
All of the states being sued have Democratic attorneys general or governors. Washington, Arizona and Minnesota are leading the charge. The complaint was filed in the Western District of Washington.
The lawsuit alleges that the EPA “unilaterally and unlawfully terminated” the program, violating the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies can operate. It also said the Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its “constitutional authority” by attempting to rescind a program and funding approved by Congress.
The new lawsuit is part of a two-pronged approach that states are taking to fight the Trump administration's cuts to clean energy programs enacted under President Joe Biden.
On Wednesday, a similar group of plaintiffs, including states and public energy organizations, filed a separate challenge to overturn individual grant agreements in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The lawsuit says the EPA violated individual grant agreements it had with state and local energy authorities when it demanded its money back.
The lawsuit alleges that the Environmental Protection Agency used a “flawed and bad faith interpretation” of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed under the Trump administration to justify its actions.
The lawsuit acknowledges that the law gave the administration some ability to rescind Inflation Reduction Act funds, but argues that the administration was only allowed to take funds that had not already been distributed to grant recipients.
Third lawsuit filed this month in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island solar companies, homeowners, nonprofits and labor unions rely on similar arguments. It claims that the EPA's actions will result in nearly a million people losing access to affordable solar energy and that “hundreds of thousands of good-paying, quality jobs will be lost.”
