Trump strikes to kill $7 billion in photo voltaic panel grants
by AFP Workers Writers
Washington (AFP) Aug 7, 2025
President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday moved to kill a $7 billion program designed to carry rooftop photo voltaic to low-income and deprived communities throughout the USA.
The Photo voltaic For All grant program was created beneath the 2022 Inflation Discount Act, former president Joe Biden’s landmark local weather laws.
Sixty recipients — a mixture of state businesses and nonprofits — had already been chosen throughout each Democratic-led and Republican-led states. The initiative aimed to assist greater than 900,000 households slash their electrical energy payments by a whole lot of {dollars} a 12 months.
In a video posted to X, Environmental Safety Company Administrator Lee Zeldin stated final month’s “Massive Stunning Act” repealed the Greenhouse Fuel Discount Fund, beneath which Photo voltaic For All was housed. He stated he was now obligated to observe the legislation.
Zeldin alleged — with out elaboration — that this system’s funds have been being siphoned off by the executive prices of “middlemen,” calling the setup a “grift.”
He additionally criticized its exemption from necessities to purchase American items, claiming it amounted to “nice information for China.”
Of the $7 billion obligated up to now, simply $53 million has been spent, in line with an evaluation by analysis agency Atlas Public Coverage.
Tom Taylor, a senior coverage analyst at Atlas, instructed AFP there had been a basic understanding that after contracts have been signed, obligated funds could not be clawed again. “However the Trump administration is now testing that concept,” he stated.
Environmental teams erupted in anger.
“President Trump pledged to chop vitality payments in half, however as soon as once more his administration is attempting to make it costlier to maintain your own home cool or the lights on,” stated Adam Kent, director of inexperienced finance on the Pure Sources Protection Council.
Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders accused Trump of performing to guard fossil gasoline pursuits. “Donald Trump desires to illegally kill this program to guard the obscene earnings of his associates within the oil and gasoline trade,” he stated in an announcement, vowing to “combat again to protect this enormously vital program.”
The administration has already labored with Congress to repeal tax credit for wind and photo voltaic, tightened restrictions on federal leases for renewable vitality initiatives, and rescinded designated offshore wind areas.
It has additionally proposed ending rules on greenhouse gasoline emissions from energy crops and automobiles — and launched a report suggesting local weather change could possibly be helpful.
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