PHOENIX — Arizona and the Hopi Tribe could regain about $181 million for low-income solar projects after two federal judges ruled the Trump administration unlawfully terminated Biden-era Solar for All grants, Cronkite News reported Sunday via the Arizona Daily Star.
The Environmental Protection Agency awarded nearly $7 billion under the program in April 2024. The Trump EPA ended Solar for All in August 2025 after only about $71 million had been disbursed nationwide, though the full pot had been promised to roughly 60 grantees. Arizona had received $42,000 of its $156.1 million award; the Hopi Tribe had received $421,000 of $25.1 million, according to USASpending.gov records cited in the report.
In September, judges in Rhode Island and the District of Columbia issued rulings days apart rejecting EPA’s claim that Congress’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” wiped out the unspent money. Both held that because grant agreements had already obligated the funds, the money was not free to rescind. EPA said it is reviewing the rulings and considering whether to appeal.
Arizona was not a party to those two cases but is fighting the cancellation elsewhere. Attorney General Kris Mayes led a 22-state-plus-D.C. suit that was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds; a parallel Court of Federal Claims case is set for trial Aug. 8, 2027. Mayes’ office declined to comment on the new rulings.
In a May court declaration, Maren Mahoney of the Governor’s Office of Resiliency said Arizona expected the grant to help 11,232 moderate- and low-income households save $165 million on electricity, cut about 96,000 tons of CO2 a year, and support loans and installer training. Adrianna Amato, a spokeswoman for the office, said the state is “cautiously optimistic” the promised funds will return.
For Hopi Utilities Corporation, the EPA award was meant to bring electricity to about 600 homes on a reservation where roughly 35% of homes lack power, per a 2023 Energy Department report cited in coverage. Energy manager Fletcher Wilkinson said planning was finished and the tribe was ready to execute when funding stopped: “It was crushing.” Other IRA tribal grants totaling $10.2 million help, he said, but fall far short of the EPA commitment.