Last August, the Trump Anti Clean Energy and Climate Change denying regime cancelled about seven billion dollars in the Solar for All Grant Blue and Green Collar Job Creating Program.
The program had been secured in the passage of the Biden/Harris Inflation Reduction Program.
If fully enacted, according to a press release from the office of Attorney General Kris Mayes, it would “lower energy costs and pollution by bringing solar energy to more than 900,000 households in low-income and disadvantaged communities across the country.”
Arizona was meant to be receive $156 million in Solar for All grants.
According to the Mayes office press release, if the Grand Canyon state had received what it had been promised:
“The Solar for All Arizonan program would have brought substantial benefits to program participants and to the State, including creating $165 million in bill savings for participating households, thousands of new, good-paying jobs throughout Arizona’s solar industry and 61 megawatts of new solar deployment, all while preventing at least 96,000 tons of CO2 from entering Arizona’s atmosphere each year.”
Furthermore “The Hopi Tribe, through its Hopi Utilities Corporation, also received a $25 million Solar for All grant to install solar panels and battery storage in homes across the Hopi Reservation in Northeastern Arizona.The Solar for All program would have improved energy access for nearly 600 Hopi homes, many of which had never before had access to electricity.”
In a joint letter written by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs and the state’s Democratic Congressional Delegation at the time of the grant cancellation, they all called on Trump funding what was Congressionally approved and obligated:
“Despite your unilateral claim that the Solar for All program has been terminated, it is clear that the funds for its grant awards remain obligated. During the drafting of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Congressional Budget Office determined1 that, because these grant funds remain intact, the EPA would recover only $19 million of the $7 billion program. This sum solely represents administrative funds returned to the U.S. Treasury. This analysis from Congress’s budget experts makes clear the actual legal status of the grant awards.”
“Retracting obligated Solar for All funds is an encroachment on Congress’s fiscal authority and a violation of established federal regulations. There is no acceptable reason to abandon commitments already made to the people of Arizona and the country. We demand a full and immediate disbursement of funds that have been properly and legally obligated to grant awardees in Arizona. Anything less would constitute a breach of trust, a retreat from critical energy investments, and a shameful disservice to vulnerable communities that have long lacked access to clean, affordable power.”
Fast forward close to two months later and Ms. Mayes, along with the Attorney Generals and leaders of 21 states and Washington D.C., have acted on Trump and MAGA Republicans latest abuse of power, filing two lawsuits against the Trump/Vance Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency under MAGA climate denying hack Lee Zeldin, demanding restoration of the Congressionally approved funds for the Solar for All Program that had already been obligated.
In Trump and MAGA Republicans Big Billionaires First Economic Disaster Bill, only the unobligated funds were marked for cancellation.
Not the obligated ones.
In the press release, Attorney General Mayes commented:
“Beyond the fact that this energy infrastructure funding has already been appropriated to our state and is owed to Arizonans, protecting solar projects and lower electricity bills is personal to me. Arizona families are already facing sky-high electricity bills, and I will not let the EPA wriggle out of its commitment to fund solar energy projects that would lower costs for more than 11,000 Arizona households.”
The Attorney General also held a virtual press conference with California’s Attorney General, Rob Bonta, to discuss the legal actions against Trump’s EPA.
Mayes and other Attorney Generals across the country have had marked success bringing judicial action against Mr. Trump and his Project 2025 cronies.
Just today, she, along with other state Attorney Generals, secured an injunction against a demand from the Department of Agriculture on requiring states to turn over personal information on SNAP recipients.
She is also about to launch litigation against House Speaker Mike Johnson for refusing to swear in Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva.
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