The Environmental Protection Agency says it’s halting a program that could have helped low-income Montanans reduce their power bills.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin in a video said the agency no longer had the authority to give out $7 billion in solar grants. That money had already been earmarked for states and tribes to help homeowners buy and install solar panels. President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill signed into law last month eliminated this “Solar for All” program.
Makenna Sellers with the Montana Renewable Energy Association says the state will lose out on $44 million in support for solar power.
“It means that the Montanans who are already struggling to make ends meet and afford energy bills or housing or general cost-of-living – those are the folks that are going to be hurt the most,” Sellers told MTPR in a phone interview.
Solar for All would have helped low and moderate-income households buy and install solar panels, covering up to 100% of costs. The nonprofit set to administer the program in Montana, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, estimates solar could cut a home’s energy bill by as much as 20 percent. The nonprofit declined to comment on the EPA’s decision to terminate the program.
The move is one step in a broader effort by the Trump administration to roll back federal support for renewable energy and revamp fossil fuel production and other extractive industries.
Solar For All was part of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
