Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) spearheaded a recent letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin demanding the restoration of funding to the Solar for All program.
The Context
Solar for All was established under the Biden Administration in 2022 and provides $7 billion in competitive grants to states, tribes, nonprofits, and other eligible recipients to expand residential solar for low-income households and disadvantaged communities.
Last August, the Trump Administration sought to terminate the program, although attempts to withhold funding have been legally challenged.
What Gallego is Saying
Sen. Gallego's letter emphasized that Solar for All has helped "slash utility bills, create jobs, and strengthen the electric grid," claiming that 900,000 households affected by the program could stand to have their energy bills 20% cheaper, totaling approximately $8.7 billion.
He continued, "As hardworking Americans grapple with skyrocketing energy bills, Solar for All stands to deliver meaningful savings to hundreds of thousands of households."
"The EPA must immediately restore Solar for All and ensure projects nationwide proceed to implementation as Congress intended," Sen. Gallego concluded.
Past Challenges
Last week, Gallego joined another letter raising concerns about changes in the Regional Haze program, which would allow states projected to outperform the uniform rate of progress (URP) to avoid new emission reductions without meaningfully applying the four statutory factors of compliance costs, necessary time, energy and non-air environmental costs, and remaining useful life of the source.
Gallego also cosponsored legislation last August to restore clean energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) eliminated. Without these credits, he claimed, energy bills will rise, and nearly 1 million jobs will be lost by 2030 as 300 factories go unbuilt or never open.
"When they voted for their 'Big Beautiful Bill,' Republicans wiped out the investments that were lowering electricity costs for hardworking families, creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, and bringing billions of dollars of investment to Arizona," Gallego previously said.
