A group of labor unions, nonprofits and solar companies sued the Trump administration on Monday over its cancellation of a $7 billion Biden-era grant program that aimed to expand solar energy to low-income communities.
The complaint, filed in federal court in Rhode Island, alleges that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator, Lee Zeldin, broke the law when grants awarded in 2024 to 60 nonprofit groups, tribes and states were rescinded.
Plaintiffs in the suit include the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, the nonprofits Rhode Island Center for Justice and Solar United Neighbors, Pittsburgh-based solar installer Energy Independent Solutions, Black Sun Light Sustainability, an Indiana nonprofit project, Georgia companies Sunpath Solar and 2KB Energy Services, and Anh Nguyen, an Atlanta homeowner who applied to receive a solar installation through a Solar For All program in Georgia.
The plaintiffs were not direct grant recipients but stood to benefit from the program, the lawsuit alleges. An EPA spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. When he terminated the program in August, Zeldin said he no longer had the authority to administer it.
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