<\/p>\n
Julian Guerrero, left, and Gerardo Godinez, of True Texas Solar, install solar panels on Monday,\u00a0Dec. 11, 2023 in Conroe.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee filed a lawsuit Monday<\/a> contesting the Trump administration\u2019s cancellation<\/a> of more than $400 million in solar energy grants earmarked for Texas-based organizations.<\/p>\n The federal funding, part of a $7 billion Biden-era program<\/a> known as Solar for All, was meant to help lower-income families access solar panels and battery storage systems. It was expected to save participants an estimated $1,740 annually on their utility bills, county officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Across Texas, cities and nonprofits also planned to outfit community centers<\/a> and minority-serving colleges<\/a> with solar panels, so the technology\u2019s potential to lower electricity bills and mitigate power outages could be shared with nearby neighborhoods.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n SOLAR FOR ALL: Fifth Ward community center to receive federal dollars to become a safe haven during extreme weather<\/a><\/p>\n But the funding\u2019s fate was never secure after President Donald Trump took office in January and directed a barrage of government actions<\/a> to batter renewable energy and unleash fossil fuels.\u00a0<\/p>\n For months, Solar for All grants were frozen<\/a> and then unfrozen as Texas-based organizations struggled to stand up their various programs. In August, the Environmental Protection Agency pulled the plug<\/a> on Solar for All, citing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed into law the previous month.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The bottom line is this: EPA no longer has the authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said<\/a> in August. “EPA is taking action to end this program for good.”<\/p>\n In his Monday lawsuit, Menefee stated that the Big Beautiful Bill gave the EPA no such authority to cancel the Solar for All grants, as those funds had already been legally committed to the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cEPA has time and again disparaged Solar for All\u2026 making plain its determination to shut them down by whatever means necessary \u2014 legal or not,\u201d Menefee wrote in his legal complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n Harris County had led other municipalities across the state, including Dallas County, Austin, San Antonio and\u00a0Waco, in winning $250 million in grants from Solar for All in 2024. This was one of the largest awards from the countrywide program.<\/p>\n The EPA\u2019s cancellation of funding caused \u201cirreparable harm\u201d to Harris County and its constituents,\u00a0Menefee wrote, as all work on the county\u2019s Solar for All programs have stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt jeopardizes the county\u2019s ability to deliver critical infrastructure promised to create thousands of well-paying jobs, protect residents from extreme weather by reinforcing the county\u2019s electrical grid, and reduce energy costs for tens of thousands of low-income households,\u201d Menefee wrote in his complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The EPA declined to comment on Harris County’s lawsuit, citing the agency’s \u201clongstanding practice\u201d to not comment on current or pending litigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Larry Walker describes how solar panels \u2014 funded by the federal Solar for All program \u2014 could be installed on the upper roof and slanted lower roofs of the Carl Walker, Jr. Multi-purpose Center in Houston to supply emergency power if needed.<\/p>\n Kirk Sides\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n RELATED PROJECT: How Houstonians are turning their homes into solar-powered hubs for neighbors during outages<\/a><\/p>\n Harris County\u2019s lawsuit is the second to push back against the EPA\u2019s cancellation of Solar for All. Last week, a coalition of solar companies, labor unions, nonprofits and homeowners sued the agency<\/a> to restore the program\u2019s funding in a lawsuit filed in Rhode Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n Menefee, who is running<\/a> to represent Houston\u2019s historically Black 18th Congressional District, has made his willingness to sue the Trump administration<\/a> a key selling point of his candidacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In June, his lawsuit<\/a> against the Department of Health and Human Services successfully restored $20 million<\/a> in public health funding to a coalition of local governments led by Harris County.\u00a0<\/p>\n This story is developing and may be updated.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julian Guerrero, left, and Gerardo Godinez, of True Texas Solar, install solar panels on Monday,\u00a0Dec. 11, 2023 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1506,1505,56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-hc-environment","9":"tag-hc-politics","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-headlines","12":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n