A coalition of labor unions, nonprofit organizations and solar companies filed suit Monday against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), challenging the agency’s termination of the $7 billion Solar for All program.

The suit claims that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin exceeded statutory authority when he withdrew program funding in August. Plaintiffs argued that Congress only permitted the EPA to repurpose uncommitted funds, not to revoke awards that had already been announced. Moreover, claimants asserted that program termination violated the Inflation Reduction and Administrative Procedure acts and sought declaratory and injunctive relief to restore the program.

Plaintiffs—the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, Rhode Island Center for Justice, Solar United Neighbors, Sunpath Solar, 2KB Energy Services, Black Sun Light Sustainability, and a local homeowner—claimed the cancellation caused significant financial harm to communities and small businesses that had relied on promised grants.

In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which granted $27 billion to the newly created Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). From the fund, the Act carved out $7 billion for competitive grants administered through the EPA “to enable low-income…communities to…benefit from zero-emission technologies, including distributed technologies on residential rooftops, and…other greenhouse gas emission reduction activities.”

The program become known as the Solar for All program, and in April 2024 the EPA announced awards that would reach over 900,000 low-income homes. However, the program came to an abrupt halt with the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act in July 2025, which eliminated the GGRF and Solar for All.

Following the program’s termination, Zeldin wrote on social media:

The bottom line is this: EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive… The Trump EPA is announcing that we are ending Solar for All for good, saving US taxpayers ANOTHER $7 BILLION!

The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit recently ruled that similar challenges to canceled EPA climate-grant awards must be brought in the US Court of Federal Claims, finding such disputes to be “essentially contractual” under the Tucker Act.