Lowering electricity bills will be more difficult after EPA program cut

The Environmental Protection Agency says it will sunset a $7 billion program to help low-income households and communities get access to affordable solar energy — even as many program grantees were expected to launch new initiatives later this year and next.

The “Solar for All” program aimed to help more than 900,000 low-income households across the country reduce pollution and electricity costs. About $117 million was allotted to Indiana to fund rooftop solar panels, community solar farms and battery storage.

But the program is in question after passage of the Big Beautiful Bill Act last month. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin wrote on social media that his agency no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep it alive.

Consequently, households will lose the ability to save hundreds of dollars annually by implementing energy-reducing measures provided by the program, Zealan Hoover, a former EPA senior adviser involved in the program’s inception, told ABC News.

“It would have significantly addressed the pain that so many families are facing with rapidly rising electricity prices,” he said.

Part of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the administration estimated Solar for All would save low-income households up to $400 a year on energy bills, create more than 200,000 jobs and cut toxic pollution by more than 30 million metric tons. In Indiana, dozens of local governments, nonprofits, utilities and housing organizations have already begun planning for projects that are expected to reduce energy bills for working families, according to Solar Opportunities Indiana, a coalition helping manage the state’s grant funding.

“Elected officials continue to tout their desire to achieve affordability for ratepayers,” said Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, an Indiana nonprofit advocating for consumer and environmental protections. “And then we see something like this. It’s completely inconsistent.”

Residential electricity rates from Indiana’s major investor-owned utilities have surged sharply within the past year, according to Olson’s nonprofit. NIPSCO bills rose nearly 27% — or about $50 per month — from July 2024 to July 2025. CenterPoint customers saw an average 25% increase and Duke Energy’s customers faced about a 20% hike. Indiana Michigan Power raised rates by 4% — the smallest bump among the group.

High energy costs are not an inconvenience but a burden for many working- and middle-class families. And Alison Becker of Solar Opportunities Indiana said most of the projects the group oversees won’t move forward without federal dollars from the program.

In a letter addressed to the Indiana congressional delegation and signed by more than 60 state organizations urging release of the funding, Solar Opportunities said $42 million of the state’s $117 million award was to be used to support microgrids, resiliency hubs and infrastructure updates. Plans to put solar and battery storage at libraries in lower-income, southern Indiana communities would help during storms when the power is out.

“The library can be made available to charge cellphones, be warm or be cool, have food available — just a place for the community to be and to be able to be safe,” Becker told The Journal Gazette.

When they return to Washington from their August break, Sens. Jim Banks and Todd Young, Rep. Marlin Stutzman and the rest of the Indiana congressional delegation should work with their colleagues and the Trump administration to preserve the Solar for All program funding.

Such grants represent real relief that’s targeted at those who need it most: cash-strapped low-income utility ratepayers.