Washington was locked out of about $150 million in federal funding for solar projects focused on low-income communities last week as the Trump administration paused clean energy grants.
Last April, the federal Environmental Protection Agency awarded $7 billion to 60 recipients, including $156 million for the Washington state Department of Commerce. The money under the Solar for All program was expected to help over 900,000 homes in low-income communities nationwide access solar power.
In his termination of the “Green New Deal,” President Donald Trump, on his first day in office, ordered federal agencies to pause disbursements under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, which included the Solar for All program.
Commerce lost access to the solar money on Thursday, an agency spokesperson said. The situation has unfolded in tandem with an attempt by the White House budget office to freeze a wide array of federal spending, a move that’s now tied up in court.
On Friday, a group of Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter to the new head of the EPA urging him to lift the pause on Solar for All funding.
But on Monday, Washington still didn’t have access to the EPA’s online grant management portal where the Solar for All dollars are distributed. Other recipients also reported losing access last week.
“As you can imagine, this is a fluid situation and we continue to monitor daily and work to access the awarded funds,” Commerce spokesperson Penny Thomas said. “Until we hear differently, it is still frozen.”
The EPA forwarded a request for comment to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment.
Washington Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who was not among the senators who signed the Friday letter, said she was pressing for answers about why the money had been held up.
“It’s unacceptable that the Trump administration thinks they can illegally, unilaterally withhold billions in critical funds,” she said in a statement.
Commerce had pulled $110,000 from the Solar for All account last week before the federal government paused the funding. That’s the only money the state had gotten of the $156 million total, said Thomas.
Commerce had initially requested $250 million from the EPA, the maximum the state could ask for. That money would have served 10,000 households.
The state has several plans for the $156 million the feds ended up granting. That includes free solar panel installation for qualifying homeowners, a major new community solar program for renters and no-interest loans for energy efficiency upgrades and roof repairs at affordable housing complexes that commit to installing solar.
The state also planned to partner with tribes on residential solar projects.
The Solar for All money is a big chunk of about $450 million awarded to Commerce’s energy division through the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. On Monday, the agency was assessing which accounts it still had access to.
In October, the Department of Commerce said 90% of the $156 million would be available for direct financial assistance that would serve an estimated 5,000 households in Washington. The agency was using this year to plan the program before launching in January 2026.
Former Gov. Jay Inslee had also pledged $100 million from the state’s cap-and-trade auctions for solar power. He called the federal money a “game changer.”
“We are leading on solar energy in Washington state, and I want to thank the federal government for joining in our efforts to continue that expansion,” Inslee said at an event announcing the federal grant last year.
Mike Fong, then the Commerce director, said at the time the money “in one fell swoop is more than doubling our resources available for solar energy installations.”
Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in a statement that halting funding “will jeopardize the monumental renewable energy opportunities being brought to cities and towns across the nation.”
The Inflation Reduction Act called for large federal investments into a range of clean energy and climate-related programs, including the solar power grants. Former President Joe Biden signed the law in 2022.