(The Center Square) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will move to claw back $62.4 million in rooftop solar energy funds previously awarded to Wisconsin.
The grants, awarded under the President Joe Biden-era “Solar for All” program, were effectively eliminated by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, cutting a total of $7 billion awarded to 49 states.
In a letter to EPA administrator Lee Zeldin asking not to rescind the grants, Gov. Tony Evers criticized the cuts, calling them “unnecessary – and potentially illegal.”
“Attempting to terminate Solar for All grants has no legitimate purpose or justification,” Evers wrote. “Beyond that, doing so will also negatively impact Wisconsinites and our state, causing increased energy bills for Wisconsinites and hurting efforts to improve air quality, boost resilience, and create good-paying jobs.”
Evers added that the $62.4 million program would support more than 7,400 households and save a household up to $500 a year.
Terminating the program, according to Evers, would mean preventing Wisconsinites from seeing lower costs and direct savings.
However, some conservatives in the state pushed back on the governor’s narrative.
“Grants for intermittent energy sources like solar don’t lower costs. They drive costs up for everyone else,” Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin state director Megan Novak said in a statement. “Dismantling these costly drivers ensures a level playing field for all energy sources so families can benefit from lower prices, not politically favored technologies.
“Instead of pushing top-down green energy mandates, we should be focused on expanding energy choice, unleashing reliable domestic production, and reforming regulatory barriers that make it harder to build the infrastructure we need.”
A July report by Wisconsin Policy Forum found that communities that have undertaken solar energy projects in the state have seldom succeeded in cost savings, with only 3 of 23 Wisconsin communities between 2011-2023 reporting savings through solar projects.
While the EPA seeks to reclassify the previous grants as “unobligated” and take them back, some officials and trade groups argued the EPA has no legal authority to do so since the funds were already congressionally approved, The Washington Post reported.
Although Evers questioned the legality of the cuts in his letter, a spokesperson for Evers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether he is considering legal action to keep the program open.
