By Lisa Sorg | Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Democratic U.S. House members from North Carolina on Thursday condemned the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to cancel $7 billion in grants for the Solar for All program, created under the Biden administration to expand access to solar energy in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
Among those grants was $156 million awarded April 2024 to a state coalition—the N.C. Clean Energy Fund, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, Advanced Energy and the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center.
That effort had received about $1 million in early planning funds as of March 2025, according to DEQ spokesperson Sascha Medina, but a recent dollar figure was not immediately available.
“We strongly urge you to reverse this decision, which will raise energy costs for our constituents, eliminate North Carolina jobs, and negatively impact communities across our state,” the members wrote.
U.S. Reps. Deborah Ross, Valerie Foushee, Don Davis and Alma Adams signed the letter.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the move Thursday on the social-media site X, formerly Twitter, pointing to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as the reason: “EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive.”
The Trump administration’s interpretation of the new law is sure to widen the litigation it finds itself in over its handling of most of the climate-related programs that Congress passed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
In the new law, Congress did not and could not rescind the programs entirely. It only rescinded the relatively small amount of money that the Biden administration had not obligated to grantees. But the Trump administration is arguing that the impact was the same as if Congress ended the programs entirely, since it now lacks the money that was left behind to administer the programs.
The North Carolina House Democrats wrote that the EPA’s action could violate federal law.
“North Carolina has long been a leader in the clean energy economy, and this Administration’s actions over the past seven months are putting billions of dollars in economic investment in our state at risk,” the members wrote. “Again, we strongly urge you to reconsider this reckless and illegal course of action.”
In Washington, Patrick Drupp, climate policy director for the Sierra Club, blasted President Donald Trump for propping up the fossil fuel industry in a “made up” national energy emergency while taking a “sledgehammer” to renewable energy projects.
“Solar energy is cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable than dirty fossil fuels,” Drupp said in a statement. “By rescinding these grants, Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are denying our most vulnerable communities a resource that would have helped alleviate their financial burdens and improved their quality of life.”
The program has 60 grantees across the country, in North Carolina and in 48 other states, as well as six Native American tribes and five multi-state coalitions. Nationally, the program would have provided solar energy to 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities, a mix of rooftop solar and subscription-based community solar, the Biden administration said last year.
In North Carolina, the Solar for All grant was intended to serve 12,500 low-income and disadvantaged communities across the state, including state- and federally recognized tribal lands, according to DEQ. The plan was to launch at least 43 megawatts of residential solar by the end of the five-year program.
DEQ spokesman Josh Kastrinsky said the agency is “aware of the recent message on social media but have no formal communication from EPA on the program.”
The program is part of the broader Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and the administration has already sought to cancel funding for the “green bank” programs that make up the bulk of the fund.
Steve Kalland, executive director of the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center, told Inside Climate News that the state’s Solar for All program is designing “innovative pilot programs,” including a solar-plus-battery option for households that have critical medical devices, like electric oxygen concentrators.
Solar for All in North Carolina would undertake several ambitious projects for both eligible single-family homes and multifamily housing owned and operated by nonprofit and public organizations. It also planned to launch a community solar pilot program, including with municipal utilities and electric co-ops.
North Carolina is a good location for solar projects. In 2023, it ranked fourth in the nation in solar generating capacity, with nearly 6,600 megawatts, and fifth in total solar power generation, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. But it’s also adding natural-gas infrastructure at a fast clip.
“North Carolinians are experiencing record-high energy bills, rising costs driven largely by our reliance on fossil fuel power plants,” said David Kelly, North Carolina state director of the Environmental Defense Fund. “The Solar for All program is aimed squarely at lowering household energy costs, recognizing that clean energy is more affordable than outdated, polluting power sources. Cancelling these funds will make it harder for working families to afford their utility bills.”
Inside Climate News reporter Marianne Lavelle contributed to this story.
