Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has joined elected Democrats from other states in suing the Trump administration to stop what they call the “unlawful termination” of billions of dollars for residential solar projects.
A press release Wednesday from California Attorney General Rob Bonta stated the cancellation of the $7 billion “Solar for All” program denied states “critical funds they were depending on for solar energy in low-income and disadvantaged communities nationwide.”
Bonta is among more than a dozen Democratic attorneys general, along with Beshear and Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who are plaintiffs in the lawsuits alleging the program’s termination is illegal and unconstitutional.
When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency terminated the program in August, Administrator Lee Zeldin in a statement on social media said the agency’s authority to administer the program was eliminated through the passage of a tax-and-spending law signed by Trump this summer. The Associated Press reported Zeldin characterized the program as a “boondoggle.”
An email received Thursday from the EPA’s press office stated the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Congress created the “Solar for All” program through the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the program aimed to expand residential solar energy projects to hundreds of thousands of low-income households across the country.
Kentucky officials planned to use a portion of $62 million from the program to install residential solar panels paired with battery storage systems on homes in “disaster-impacted communities.” A group of stakeholders had met several times this year in planning how the state would use the funding in communities affected by floods and tornadoes.
Robin Hartman, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, in an early September email to the Lantern said the state couldn’t access its “Solar for All” funding because it was being “unlawfully withheld by the federal administration.”
“Team Kentucky is working hard to ensure the federal government makes good on its promise to our people and delivers the entirety of this funding,” Hartman wrote in her email.
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Written by Liam Niemeyer. Cross-posted from the Kentucky Lantern.
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