Trump administration unlawfully slashed $7 billion in clean energy grants, judge rules

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it canceled the Solar For All program, which provided $7 billion in grants for “states, municipalities, tribes and nonprofits designed to reduce electric bills, create jobs and address the greenhouse gas emissions warming the global climate,” Amy Green writes for Inside Climate News. 

The Biden administration established the program, which the Environmental Protection Agency canceled after President Donald Trump's inauguration. Multiple groups sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island on behalf of workers, business and nonprofits who suffered because of the withdrawn funding. 

Inside Climate News reports:

“Congress’s clear intent was that EPA continue to administer the already obligated SFA grants,” Judge Mary S. McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote in her ruling, issued Friday. “Defendants acted contrary to this intent, and with no other statutory authority, when they terminated the SFA program.”