Is the Solar for All program coming back
The Solar for All program is coming back, after a court fight that took almost a year. On September 18, 2026, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency acted unlawfully when it ended the 7 billion dollar program, and ordered the agency to resume administering it. That reversal comes months after a separate lawsuit, filed by 19 states and the District of Columbia over the same shutdown, was thrown out for lack of jurisdiction. Both lawsuits challenged the same decision. Only 1 of them worked.
Why the Environmental Protection Agency shut the program down
Solar for All is a 7 billion dollar grant program created under the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2022 law that also funded a wider 27 billion dollar Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. It pays for solar power and battery systems for low income households, at no cost to them. Administrator Lee Zeldin announced on August 7, 2025 that the agency would stop running it. The agency program page names the reason, a law signed July 4, 2025 that, in the agency words, "repealed EPA's authority to administer the program and rescinded all remaining funds." Congress had funded the program. A later law took that authority away.
One lawsuit over the shutdown failed, a separate one succeeded
19 states and the District of Columbia, led by Arizona, Minnesota and Washington, sued the agency on October 16, 2025 in the Western District of Washington, arguing the shutdown broke federal procedure. According to pv magazine USA, that case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction in June 2026. A separate case, filed the same month in the District of Rhode Island by the Conservation Law Foundation, the Southern Environmental Law Center and other advocacy groups, argued instead that the money was already legally obligated to states before the shutdown happened. Judge Mary S. McElroy agreed, ruling that the 2025 law did not turn that obligated funding into what she called "a lump sum amount subject to EPA's discretion," and ordered the program restored.
What the shutdown cost while it lasted
Only 53 million dollars of the 7 billion dollars awarded had reached grantees before the freeze. That is about 0.8% of the total, a figure this outlet calculates from those 2 numbers. Most of the money never left Washington before a court had to intervene.
Only 53 million dollars had reached grantees before the freeze. This outlet calculates that as about 0.8% of the total, from the same 2 figures.
Show the numbers
| Total awarded | 7,000 |
| Reached grantees | 53 |
Connecticut was awarded 62.45 million dollars under the program. Its attorney general reports that the same day the national shutdown was announced, the amount still available to the state was cut to just 4.34 million dollars, without explanation.
Figures from Connecticut own attorney general, describing the same national shutdown announced on August 7, 2025.
Show the numbers
| Original award | 62.45 |
| Still available after the freeze | 4.34 |
Nationally, the systems already installed before the freeze were reaching more than 900,000 households, each saving roughly 400 dollars a year on its electric bill. Whether the program now grows back to its full size, or whether the Environmental Protection Agency appeals the ruling, is not yet known.
Electricity bills are skyrocketing, so low-cost solar projects, which guarantee big savings, are needed now more than ever.
Nick Torrey, Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center. Source 4.