NC attorney general sues Trump administration over canceled rooftop solar grants
Published in News & Features
North Carolina and 22 other states sued President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency Thursday, claiming it had illegally canceled more than $7 billion in grants meant to help install solar power in low-income and rural areas.
N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined the suit on behalf of the state, which had secured $150 million in grants through the Solar for All program when Trump’s EPA chief announced the funding would be canceled. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin made the announcement in a social media post in August in which he called Solar for All “a boondoggle.”
Solar for All is an initiative of the Biden administration’s “Investing in America” agenda and was funded by Congress through the Inflation Reduction Act, which created EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
Clean-energy advocates have long said the United States must reduce its reliance on fossil fuels to slow climate change, reduce carbon emissions and lower energy costs. Solar power with battery storage is one of the cleanest and least polluting sources of energy.
A solar collection system can be designed and installed in a few months on sunny rooftops, exterior walls and open spaces. Large, centralized power plants that rely on coal, gas or nuclear power can take years to build or expand.
While rooftop solar can save a family or business money over the long run, up-front installation costs can be a deterrent. That’s where Solar for All was designed to help, by giving grants to states, territories, tribal governments, municipalities and nonprofits across the country. In North Carolina, the program is administered by the state Department of Environmental Quality, which calls its version EnergizeNC.
A coalition including the NC Clean Energy Technology Center at N.C. State University, the NC Clean Energy Fund, and Advanced Energy has been working with DEQ to determine how best to use the money.
North Carolina applied for $250 million in grants and in 2024 received more than $156 million to be used over five years. Some of that had been drawn down when Zeldin announced the cancellation of the program. Those working with EnergizeNC said the money would have helped more than 12,000 households in the state save an average of 20% on their utility bills. The money also would have helped support the burgeoning solar power industry in the state, whose more than 200 businesses have more than 9,000 employees.
“These funds were going to help low-income and rural North Carolinians save money on their energy bills,” Jackson said in a press release. “Thousands of families were going to have the option to install solar power, save money, and have another energy option after a major storm. Now the EPA has illegally cancelled those funds — so I’m going to court to bring $150 million back to our state.”
Reid Wilson, secretary of NCDEQ, said, “Rooftop solar drives down utility bills, reduces air pollution and creates jobs. The program’s cancellation would hurt the electric grid’s ability to be resilient to future disasters, and would hamper North Carolina’s efforts to ensure reliable, clean and affordable energy supplies to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and rising energy demand.”
Jackson said the EPA unilaterally canceled all grant agreements in the program, leaving North Carolina without more than $150 million of the $156 million it had been awarded. He said the EPA notified all recipients, including North Carolina, that there was no longer any “statutory basis or dedicated funding” for Solar for All, though the cancellation was not approved by Congress, which had approved the original funding.
“In fact,” Jackson said, “Congress did the opposite by only rescinding unawarded Solar for All funds when it passed the BBB (Big Beautiful Bill). The grants were abruptly cancelled without a valid legal basis, and the attorneys general are suing to win back this money that is legally due to North Carolina and other states.”
Jackson and the other states filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The suit claims the EPA violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s Separation of Powers Doctrine by unlawfully canceling Solar for All.
Jackson also joined states in a second lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims arguing that EPA breached the clear terms of the agreements and violated the duty of good faith and fair dealing in canceling their Solar for All grants.
(This story was produced with financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and Green South Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.)
©2025 Raleigh News & Observer. Visit newsobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Comments