RI judge reverses Trump administration’s cancellation of $7B solar grant program
More than a year after federal regulators abruptly canceled a $7 billion solar energy grant program — with funds already distributed and even partially spent — a Rhode Island federal judge has ordered them to revive the program.
But it’s too early for the group of union laborers, solar panel installation companies, homeowners and nonprofit advocates who filed the complaint in October 2025 against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare victory
“The result is maddeningly difficult to talk about what happens next because we just don’t know what they’ll do,” said Kevin Hubbard, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs.
The 20-page order issued on Friday by U.S. Judge Mary S. McElroy of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island determines that the federal agency overstepped its statutory authority when it ended the $7 billion Solar for All grant program in August 2025.
Originally included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-era incentive program sought to make solar panels more widely accessible by offsetting the installation costs for low-to-moderate-income homeowners and renters. Funding was distributed in 2024 to state and local governments, nonprofits, and tribal organizations, including a $49.3 million allocation to Rhode Island through the state’s Office of Energy Resources.
Many funding recipients, including Rhode Island, had already set up the framework to begin giving out the money to eligible applicants, with union laborers and solar development companies at the ready for an expected 200,000 jobs over the course of the five-year program. The grants were expected to help $900,000 households nationwide save $350 million annually on their energy bills, according to prior estimates from the Biden administration.
“This will be a really big deal for solar deployment in Rhode Island,” said Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, which was one of the plaintiffs in the suit. “This program could really be a gamechanger for meeting our Act on Climate goals.”