ESG Daily, CLEAN ENERGY FUNDING—Group of 114 U.S. lawmakers urge Solar for All reinstatement, (Oct 30, 2026)

By Joe Cox, J.D.

The group of senators and representatives noted a pair of recent decisions against slashing the Solar for All program and urged outlay of Congress’s allocated $7 billion funding.

A group of 114 United States senators and House of Representatives members penned a joint letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin in regard to the stalled Solar for All program. The program, under which Congress in 2022 appropriated $7 billion for a program which its proponents note would “slash utility bills for communities in all 50 states,” ran afoul of the Trump administration. The administration offered several justifications in recent litigation to withhold funding under the program. But after a pair of recent rulings indicating that the administration could not unilaterally terminate the program and freeze its allocated funds, the group of senators and representatives wrote to request that Zeldin reinstate the funding for programs which were previously not being funded.

Lawmaker letter. The single-page letter urges immediate action from Zeldin to effectuate the original aims of the Solar for All program. Noting that the allocated funding “is sitting idle in the EPA’s bank account instead of working to benefit American families,” the group urges prompt attention from Zeldin.

“The EPA’s illegal termination of Solar for All has left states, communities, and businesses across the country in limbo,” wrote the lawmakers. “Nevertheless, the program’s grantees stand ready to put Solar for All dollars to work on residential solar projects to slash utility bills and create many thousands of good jobs. The EPA must immediately restore Solar for All and ensure projects nationwide proceed to implementation as Congress intended.”

In an accompanying press release, the group stated, “The program will create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, lower residential electricity bills by at least 20% for more than 900,000 households and save working families more than $8.7 billion in electric costs over the lifetime of the solar panels.”

Recent Court Decision on Solar for All. One of the decisions discussed in the Representatives’ letter came in September, as a Rhode Island court granted summary judgment to several environmental groups over the EPA, finding that the plain language of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) allowed for the rescission of unobligated funds but did not allow existing grants to be rescinded. The EPA argued both the recission powers of the OBBBA as a justification for withholding the funds and also posited that sovereign immunity and the status of the decision as not yet final both blocked any entitlement to relief.

However, the court found neither argument to be credible, as sovereign immunity did not apply to a suit seeking to enforce a contractual obligation to pay money, and the EPA’s action was sufficiently final to be reviewed by the court in question. Accordingly, the EPA was obligated to expend the monies previously set aside by a Democratic Congress in 2022.

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