Dive Brief:
- Harris County, Texas, sued the Environmental Protection Agency Monday for canceling its Solar For All grant funding. Harris County received one of the largest Solar for All Awards in 2024.
-
The EPA eliminated the program in August, citing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but the lawsuit states “the OBBBA provides no authority for EPA’s Elimination Decision.”
- “The Trump administration is breaking the law to score political points, and Harris County residents shouldn’t have to pay that price,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement posted on social media. “Congress appropriated this funding, EPA awarded it to Harris County after a rigorous competitive process.”
Dive Insight:
Monday’s lawsuit follows a similar, separate complaint filed last week by a coalition of community and labor groups. That suit says the EPA’s termination of Solar For All was unconstitutional and caused them harm.
The Texas Solar for All Coalition was awarded nearly $250 million in 2024 to expand solar access across the state as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund established by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Harris County — the state’s largest county and home to Houston — led the coalition and secured more than $54 million.
On August 7, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced his agency would no longer implement the $7 billion Solar for All program, saying the OBBBA “repealed EPA’s authority to administer the program and rescinded all remaining funds.”
Zeldin said very little of the money had been spent and recipients were “still very much in the early planning phase, not the building and construction process.”
On Sept. 2, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit supported the EPA’s termination of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants, stating the Biden administration modified the grant agreements “to make it more difficult for the government to terminate the grants.”
Harris County’s lawsuit asserts the OBBBA rescinds only $19 million in unobligated administrative costs, not the grant funds that were obligated by the IRA’s Sept. 30, 2024, deadline.
Rescinding the funding causes “irreparable harm to Harris County and its constituents,” the lawsuit states. “Harris County personnel and Texas Coalition staff have dedicated countless hours to setting up operations for Solar for All and working to deliver the program’s benefits to their constituents,” the plaintiffs state.
Eliminating the grants upends the county’s budgetary and strategic planning and undermines its reputation “as a reliable community and business partner,” according to the lawsuit.
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
