EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Thursday that the agency would terminate $7 billion in climate law grants to help states, nonprofits and territories bring solar power to low-income communities.
Zeldin said in a post on X that President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending megalaw, which he signed last month, “eliminated” the program together with other initiatives under the so-called Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
“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,” he said in a video posted to the social media site.
EPA’s decision to end the program, which supports community and rooftop solar in underserved urban and rural areas, would save “U.S. taxpayers another $7 billion,” he said.
Both the solar program and larger fund were created by former President Joe Biden’s climate law.
EPA under the Biden administration awarded 60 solar grants to entities working in every state. They mostly went to state agencies, which have now been working for months on their plans and, in some cases, have issued sub-awards and made loans.
The repealed authorizing language for the broader Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund “green bank” initiative and pulled back unobligated funds. But none of the program’s funds for grant awards have been deobligated. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined the provision would recover only $19 million in administrative funds to the U.S. Treasury.