WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday terminated a $7 billion grant program intended to help pay for residential solar projects for more than 900,000 lower-income U.S. households, in the latest Trump administration move hindering the nation’s shift to cleaner energy.
The funding, part of the Biden-era's Solar for All program, was awarded to 60 recipients including states, tribes and regions for investments such as rooftop solar and community solar gardens. Solar, a renewable energy, is widely regarded as a way to introduce cleaner power onto the electrical grid and lower energy bills for American consumers.
Under Republican President Donald Trump, officials have pursued dozens of deregulatory measures related to federal rules intended to protect clean air and water. Last week, the EPA proposed rescinding the agency’s “endangerment finding” which serves as the scientific and legal basis for regulating planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
The administration has taken steps to bolster fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas as it pursues American "energy dominance in the global market.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement on social media that authority for the solar program was eliminated under the tax-and-spending law signed by Trump last month. It eliminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, approved under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, that set aside $20 billion for community development projects to boost renewable energy and an additional $7 billion for the solar program.
“The bottom line is this: EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive,″ Zeldin said. “Today, the Trump EPA is announcing that we are ending Solar for All for good, saving US taxpayers ANOTHER $7 BILLION!”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, who introduced the Solar for All program to cut electric bills for working families, said Zeldin’s action was illegal.
“Solar for All means lower utility bills, many thousands of good-paying jobs and real action to address the existential threat of climate change,″ Sanders said in a statement. ”At a time when working families are getting crushed by skyrocketing energy costs and the planet is literally burning, sabotaging this program isn’t just wrong — it’s absolutely insane. We will fight back to preserve this enormously important program.”
Only $53 million of the $7 billion awarded has been spent, according to a tally by the research firm Atlas Public Policy. Several grant recipients this week said their programs were in planning phases.
Stephanie Bosh, senior vice president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said the EPA has no legal authority to terminate grants already appropriated by Congress.
“These grants are delivering billions of dollars of investment to red and blue states alike,″ she said. Bosh said solar was one of the cheapest energy sources at a time of growing demand for electricity.
“This administration is continuing to dig itself into a hole,” she said.
The EPA has argued that the tax and policy law allows the agency to rescind the money it has already obligated. The recipients of that money disagree, saying the bulk of the money had already been disbursed and is not affected by the law.
Southern Environmental Law Center litigation director Kym Meyer said if the administration wants to move forward with canceling Solar for All funds, “we will see them in court.”
Grant recipients have already challenged the administration’s actions, and a judge ruled in April the EPA cannot freeze the contracts.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee, called Zeldin’s elimination of the solar program a betrayal “that will further hike electricity costs and make our power grid less reliable.”
“Trump is — yet again — putting his fossil fuel megadonors first,” he added.
St. John reported from Detroit.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE - Theodore Tanczuk, left, and Brayan Santos, of solar installer YellowLite, put solar panels on the roof of a home in Lakewood, Ohio, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
FILE - Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin speaks, Feb 3, 2025, in East Palestine, Ohio. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado discussed her country's future with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, even though he has dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela and signaled his willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s No. 2. Along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, Rodríguez remains in charge of day-to-day government operations and was set to deliver her first state of the union speech Thursday.
In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She also had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had been looking forward to the lunchtime meeting with Machado and called her “a remarkable and brave voice” for the people of Venezuela. But Leavitt also said Trump's opinion of Machado had not changed, calling it "a realistic assessment."
Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro.
Leavitt went on to say that Trump supported new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right” but did not say when he thought that might be.
Leavitt said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.
“I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado," the press secretary said, other than to have a ”frank and positive discussion about what’s taking place in Venezuela.”
Machado spent about two and a half hours at the White House but left without answering questions on whether she'd offered to give her Nobel prize to Trump, saying only “gracias."
After her White House stop, Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate. Her Washington visit began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela.
It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
Leavitt said Venezuela's interim authorities have been fully cooperating with the Trump administration and that Rodríguez's government said it planned to release more prisoners detained under Maduro. Among those released were five Americans this week.
Rodríguez has adopted a less strident position toward Trump then she did immediately after Maduro's ouster, suggesting that she can make the Republican administration's “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, work for Venezuela — at least for now.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning the peace prize. She has since thanked Trump, though her offer to share the honor with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado gestures to supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado waves to supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado smiles on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado waves to supporters on Pennsylvania Avenue as she leaves the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
