The Oregon Department of Energy says the Trump administration’s decision to terminate an $87 million solar power grant violates a legally binding agreement with the state — and says ending the program could cause “irreparable harm” to Oregonians.

The Oregon Department of Energy sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month, asking the federal government to reverse its decision to terminate the Solar For All grant. The program was intended to help lower-income households as well as rural Oregonians get easy access to rooftop solar at little to no cost.

The EPA announced in August that it was ending the program. Officials with that agency said they no longer have the authority to administer it or appropriate the funds as a result of the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill. That Republican-backed budget bill clawed back a number of climate initiatives that had been authorized under former President Joe Biden.

Oregon, Energy Trust of Oregon and Bonneville Environmental Foundation were jointly awarded $86.6 million for the program last year. They have already spent almost $500,000.

The goal was to provide rebates for solar on multi-family buildings and to develop more community solar projects that would benefit low-income households. The program would also help lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduce air pollution and create more renewable energy jobs by boosting solar installation — 40% of the program’s funding was intended to go to communities most impacted by climate change.

Those funds were “obligated” to the state, Oregon Department of Energy Director Janine Benner said. That means the federal government has legally committed to making those payments — the Republican-backed budget bill only clawed back funding that had not been obligated yet.

“We are requesting that EPA rescind the termination and make all obligated funds that were available before August 6th available to ODOE again,” Benner said to OPB. “So this is an administrative action, and it’s an appeal of the agency’s decision.”

Benner said terminating the Solar For All program contradicts what Congress intended when the One Big Beautiful Bill was passed.

“Congress very clearly said unobligated balances,” she said. “If they had meant to rescind the obligated funds, they would have said that.”

Benner said Oregon and the EPA have already entered into an agreement. While there are terms and conditions under which the federal agency is allowed to rescind or terminate funding for the program, she said the state Department of Energy could not find anything it has done to violate the terms of the agreement.

“We didn’t feel like EPA had grounds under that to terminate funding,” she said.

The state agency’s letter to the EPA also states that terminating the Solar for All program will cause harm to Oregonians.

“We were expecting to serve 7,742 low-income households. We were expecting to be able to save those households over $83 million,” Benner said. “And with the loss of this funding, we will no longer be able to run the programs that we had hoped to do, no longer able to support solar installations at single-family households with little to no upfront customer costs. We will no longer be able to work with our partners to offer point-of-sale rebates for multi-family buildings so that they can provide those benefits to their low-income residents.”

The termination of the Solar For All grant comes at a time when the state is already struggling to get more renewable energy onto the power grid, energy bills continue to increase and the state Legislature did not allocate new funding for renewable energy incentive programs.

As the current federal administration continues to terminate funding aimed at climate action, like adding more wind and solar to the grid, Oregon’s chances of meeting its renewable energy goals move further away.

Benner said Oregon could meet those goals, but the state needs programs like Solar For All to do so.

“And anytime you remove a tool like incentives for residential solar, it just makes it that much harder,” she said.

Energy Trust of Oregon’s renewable energy sector lead, Betsy Kauffman, said regardless of the EPA’s actions, her utility-funded clean energy-focused nonprofit is still committed to helping Oregonians connect to solar.

“We’ll continue offering incentives that lower costs for developers of community solar projects, which can serve hundreds of families, and those wanting to install solar on their homes and businesses,” she said. “That includes higher incentives for people and families with lower incomes.”

As of now, Benner said she’s optimistic and is hopeful the work the state and its partners have started can resume soon.

The EPA has until Feb. 24, 2026, to issue a decision in response to the Oregon Department of Energy’s letter.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/15/oregon-environmental-protection-agency-epa-solar-power-grant-lawsuit/