Judge rules EPA illegally terminated $7 billion solar program intended to help poorer Americans - KLBK | KAMC | EverythingLubbock.com

The Environmental Protection Agency pulled the funding in August 2025, months after Congress passed Trump's tax and spending law. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called the Biden-era grant program a "boondoggle" when he moved to kill it, but District Judge Mary McElroy disagreed with that framing entirely.

McElroy wrote that Congress clearly intended for the EPA to keep administering Solar for All grants that were already obligated to recipients. She found the agency acted against that intent when it cut the funding off. Her ruling reopens the door for the program to move forward as originally designed.

For lower-income households across the country, including in Texas, the ruling matters because Solar for All was built specifically to make rooftop and community solar accessible to people who normally can't afford the upfront cost. A $7 billion program getting yanked, then restored by a court, changes the math for families who were counting on lower power bills. It also puts the EPA in a position where it has to answer for how it walked away from money Congress had already committed.

The fight over the $7 billion isn't over. Whether the Trump administration appeals McElroy's ruling remains an open question, and so does how fast the money actually reaches the households it was meant for.