A major Rhode Island labor union and a coalition of homeowners, solar energy companies and nonprofits sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, over its termination of $7 billion in grants meant to help low- and moderate-income families install solar panels.
The suit concerns the Solar for All program, part of the Biden administration’s signature climate legislation. The lawsuit accuses the EPA of illegally clawing-back funding without Congressional approval.
The Rhode Island AFL-CIO is lead plaintiff in the suit, filed in federal court in Providence. Patrick Crowley, the union’s president, said cancelling the program means losing hundreds of jobs in the state. Nationally, the program was projected to generate 200,000 new jobs. .
“It’s going to limit the amount of work opportunities for the members that I represent to do solar installation,” Crowley said. “It’s going to lead to increased energy costs, because without solar energy as part of an ‘all of the above strategy,’ it means that Rhode Island is going to be subject to more turbulence in the electricity market, like we’ve seen over the last several winters.”
The plaintiffs are represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Rhode Island Center for Justice and Lawyers for Good Government.
The Solar for All program was projected by the Biden administration to help 900,000 households get access to solar power. It would save Americans, the Biden administration said, $350 million a year in energy costs.
But EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called Solar for All “a boondoggle,” in a video on social media. Over the summer, it was one of several big renewable energy programs that saw funding clawed back by the Trump administration.
“This is just another example of the administration targeting programs that would help low-income, disadvantaged communities,” Crowley said, “but also the hurt states like Rhode Island that want to diversify our energy portfolio so that we can control costs.”
Rhode Island’s share of the $7 billion program amounted to more than $49 million.
The AFL-CIO’s Crowley said the cancellation of Solar for All will hurt that much more because of the abrupt cancellation of off-shore wind projects like Revolution Wind.
“This is like a one-two punch to the people of Rhode Island,” he said. “It’s going to hurt everyone’s pocketbook.”
Ocean State Media’s Jeremy Bernfeld contributed to this story.
