Labor leaders sue EPA over solar clawback
By NANCY LAVIN Rhode Island Current
Energy savings for nearly 1 million households and jobs for hundreds of thousands of union laborers are in jeopardy under the abrupt cancellation of federal solar energy funds, according to a lawsuit filed Monday against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator, Lee Zeldin.
The 47-page complaint submitted in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island centers on the ramifications of the yanked Solar for All grants for solar panel installation companies, labor unions, homeowners and nonprofit advocates.
“If Defendants’ unlawful termination of the Solar for All program is allowed to stand, nearly one million low-income households will lose access to affordable, resilient solar in communities in all states and territories, and hundreds of thousands of good-paying, high-quality jobs will be lost, especially in the low-income and disadvantaged communities Congress intended these funds to benefit,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys with the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Lawyers for Good Government and the Conservation Law Foundation, comes more than two months after the EPA abruptly ended the Solar for All program. Originally included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act approved under the Biden administration, the $7-billion program aimed to help low- and moderate-income homeowners and renters access the benefits of solar panels – often too expensive or unfeasible otherwise — while advancing renewable energy use and creating jobs.
Funding was distributed in 2024 to state and local governments, nonprofits and tribal organizations nationwide, including a $49.3 million award to Rhode Island through the state’s Office of Energy Resources.
Rhode Island had spent $89,000 of its share on employee costs for administration preparation when the money was clawed back, Christopher Kearns, acting energy commissioner, said in an email Monday.
But development work was well underway, with the state agency in tandem with labor leaders and nonprofit partners intent on maximizing the benefits of its federal windfall. The five-year program was projected to help 900,000 households nationwide save $350 million annually on their energy bills while creating 200,000 new jobs and workforce training programs, according to estimates from the Biden administration.
RI AFL-CIO leads the charge
The Rhode Island AFL-CIO, which represents 80,000 union workers in Rhode Island, is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. Union leaders helped Rhode Island plan and submit its application to the EPA seeking funding through the program, simultaneously creating and boosting workforce training and apprenticeship programs to prepare for the frenzy of new solar panel installations.
“Because of the requirement for prevailing wages and utilization of apprentices, the hope was that this would end up going to union contractors because we already pay prevailing wages and we always have professional apprenticeships in place,” Patrick Crowley, RI AFL-CIO president, said in an interview Monday.
Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Center for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm, increased its staff by 20% – from eight to 10 attorneys – to focus on the state regulations governing solar energy and utilities in preparation for the federal grant, said Jennifer Wood, the center’s executive director.
The Center for Justice is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with a Georgia homeowner who had already applied for a free solar installation, and several businesses and nonprofits involved in solar panel installation, financing and education.
None of the plaintiffs were direct recipients of the Solar for All grants, but all stood to benefit from the funds awarded — and are now “significantly harmed” by the funding termination, the lawsuit states.
“By not having this program, it’s a lost opportunity for hundreds of jobs,” Crowley said.
Kearns, with Rhode Island’s Office of Energy Resources, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Issues of economic access raised
Wood lamented the time and resources spent training two new attorneys on the complexities of state utility proceedings that govern the incentives for and implementation of solar energy in Rhode Island. More consequential, though, was the loss for low-income Rhode Island residents already struggling to afford rising energy bills and unlikely to reap benefits of solar energy without the federal aid.
“There are a lot of questions around solar, how it gets implemented, how the infrastructure works, but for our clients, the question is, can they even get access to it at all?” Wood said. “Not getting funding from Solar for All means our low-income customers may not be able to break into the benefits of solar power. That’s why it’s such a devastating blow.”
The Trump administration’s opposition to renewable energy was clear on the campaign trail, and cemented as soon as he took office, halting offshore wind projects, yanking electric vehicle incentives, and freezing access to federal grants and loans for energy efficiency programs and solar panels, among others.
Federal budget cuts signed into law on July 4 canceled $16 billion of clean energy and emissions reductions incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, a move affirmed by an appeals court in D.C. on Oct. 1. But the federal budget cuts applied only to funds not already committed to specific projects or recipients – suggesting the Solar for All funding was preserved, according to the lawsuit.
It alleges that Zeldin ignored the congressional directive and its “unambiguous text” when he announced in a social media video on Aug. 7 that the EPA was canceling the Solar for All program, violating the Administrative Procedures Act as well as constitutional protections for legislative authority.
The move drew swift condemnation from Democrats in Congress, including Rhode Island U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Gov. Dan McKee also denounced the news, accusing the Trump administration of “trying to undermine programs that support Rhode Island families” in a statement on Aug. 12.
“Congress designed Solar for All grants to give local front-line communities the tools to lower household energy costs and ensure high-quality careers for a new generation with clean, renewable energy,” Amy R. Romero, chief legal counsel of Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, said in a statement Monday. “The Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, along with its colleagues, has brought suit against the federal government to enforce the law enacted by Congress and ensure Rhode Islanders receive what Congress intended.”
The complaint asks a federal judge to force the federal administration to restore funding for the program, and declare its termination unlawful.
A spokesperson for the EPA declined to comment in an emailed response on Monday.
The case was assigned to District Judge Mary S. McElroy.
Nancy Lavin is senior reporter covering state politics, energy and environmental issues for the Rhode Island Current, which is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.