CHARLESTON -- A group of West Virginia environmental organizations is asking state officials to speak against the Trump administration's move to end a Biden-era solar program that last year committed more than $100 million for projects in West Virginia.
The Environmental Protection Agency terminated the $7 billion Solar for All program earlier this month. The program was intended to help pay for residential solar projects for more than 900,000 lower income U.S. households.
Twelve organizations -- including American Friends Service Committee of West Virginia, Appalachian Voices, Christians for the Mountains, and Citizens' Climate Lobby of West Virginia -- sent a letter Tuesday asking Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Attorney General J.B. McCuskey to speak against the program's cancellation.
"We urge you to use every tool at your disposal to push back against this unwarranted action that will harm families and small businesses across West Virginia," the organizations wrote.
The EPA granted the West Virginia Office of Energy $106 million in Solar for All funding last year. It also awarded money to 59 other entities.
According to the Office of Energy's website, the grant was to be used to "deploy residential solar roofs, support home energy efficiency, reduce utility costs for low-income residents, and make West Virginia households more energy resilient."
The program was scheduled to launch and start construction in 2026, according to a timeline listed on the website.
In a post on the social media platform X on Aug. 7, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law last month, eliminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which included Solar For All.
"In some cases, your tax dollars were diluted through up to FOUR pass-through entities, each taking their own cut off the top!" Zeldin wrote. "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.
"Today, the Trump EPA is announcing that we are ending Solar for All for good, saving US taxpayers ANOTHER $7 BILLION!," he wrote.
Zeldin said in a video that while the program was stood up in 2024, very little of the program's money has been spent. Recipients are in the "building and planning phase," and not the construction process, he said.
A spokesperson for the West Virginia Division of Economic Development, which oversees the Office of Energy, did not immediately respond to an email Monday asking how the local program would be affected by the cancellation and whether or not the state's grant money had been spent.
In a news release, Quenton King, government affairs specialist for Appalachian Voices, noted that West Virginia officials applied for the funding in 2023, knowing "the value that solar energy brings" to the state.
"The Office of Energy was actively working out how to set the program up for success and lower electricity prices for West Virginia households, and it would be a waste to throw away that work now," he wrote. "I hope that Gov. Morrisey and A.G. McCuskey work with the administration and our congressional delegation to restore the appropriated and obligated funding for this program."
Representatives for Morrisey and McCuskey did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence.