Recipients of a federal solar grant initiative may still receive their promised funding after the Trump administration halted the $7 billion program, which was created under the Biden administration to help low-income households afford solar energy. 
Solar for All, a competitive grant program run by the Environmental Protection Agency, was cut in August 2025 under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Massachusetts was promised $156 million for solar panel accessibility and funding.
“The days of wasteful Biden-era boondoggles are over, and the Trump EPA is committed to being an exceptional steward of taxpayer dollars,” an EPA spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Daily Free Press.
Awarded money was estimated to lower more than 29,000 Massachusetts low-income households’ energy bills by 20%, according to the Massachusetts Solar for All Coalition.
“The Solar for All program was poised to lower energy bills for nearly 30,000 Massachusetts households and create thousands of jobs before the Trump Administration unlawfully cancelled the program,” wrote Maria Hardiman, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, in a statement to The Daily Free Press.
Federal district court judges in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. in September ruled in separate cases against the 2025 congressional cuts to SFA funding. The EPA has until Nov. 17 to appeal a court ruling determining the cuts were unlawful.
The EPA is considering appealing the courts’ decisions, wrote an EPA spokesperson. If appealed, funds will be delayed further. 
The spokesperson wrote the Solar for All program had poor quality assurance measures for 83% of solar panel recipients. They wrote the Biden administration prematurely promised $7 billion before the program’s development, according to a January 2026 EPA Inspector General audit.
“The Biden EPA’s Solar for All perfectly encapsulates the previous administration’s spending habits: throwing money out the door with minimal oversight or regard for efficacy,” the EPA spokesperson wrote. 
James Crowley, attorney for the Rhode Island Conservation Law Foundation wrote in a statement to The Daily Free Press that the state will continue to defend affordable clean energy. 
“Clean, affordable power like solar shouldn’t be a closed-door luxury,” Crowley wrote. “Solar for All was built to open that door, and EPA tried to slam it shut. The court’s ruling pushes it back open.” 
Lauren Bowen, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, who is representing the plaintiffs challenging the EPA’s cancellation, said that while appeals may keep funds on hold, she expects the promised funds to be efficiently distributed if the case is not appealed. 
“Those benefits should start flowing very quickly to all the potential program participants,” Bowen said.
The court cases relied on whether the federal government already legally committed the funding to recipients or if Congress could withdraw the funds,  Bowen said. 
Bowen said that while some funds were unobligated, which gives Congress legal permission to withdraw them, many payments already had been contracted and signed for when they were withheld. 
“[Recipients] are left waiting for energy bill relief that Solar for All would provide, and meanwhile, EPA has these $7 billion in obligated funds sitting in their bank account,” Bowen said.
Nate Hausman, a former Solar for All Project Director before joining the Clean Energy States Alliance, had personal reservations surrounding the EPA’s sudden illegal withdrawal. Hausman said he lost his job after the cut to the program. 
“We had designed our program, we had partners hired, we had open pipelines,” Hausman said. “It was quite a shock to have built that and then for funds to disappear on a person.”
Amanda Sen, project director at the Clean Energy States Alliance, said alternative energy projects would help to relieve the ongoing affordability crisis. The volatile price of gas attributed to conflicts in the Middle East has put a strain on Massachusetts prices, which reached a seasonal record of $4.41 per gallon in September. 
“The price of the sun doesn’t fluctuate, and we’re seeing this energy affordability crisis right now,” Sen said. “If we build a network of solar and battery storage and clean energy, then our country will not be as vulnerable to those fluctuations.”
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