Donald Trump and his Republican lackeys were decimated in this week’s midterm elections, in large part thanks to an ongoing cost of living crisis. While there are many factors making life hard on Americans financially, one of the key stressors is the cost of energy, which has skyrocketed in the wake of the tech industry’s data center buildout.
Much of that pain could have been avoided — or at least pre-empted — had the Trump administration allowed a billion-dollar solar panel development project go ahead as planned, Boston-area public radio station WBUR reported.
According to the broadcaster’s reporting, the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump appointee Lee Zeldin has refused to dish out billions of congressionally-approved funds meant to expand access to solar energy in low-income communities.
The Biden-era program, dubbed “Solar For All,” earmarked $7 billion for distribution to solar energy developments led by states and Tribal governments. States like Massachusetts and Michigan were previously approved for $156 million, while others like Arkansas were set to receive over $93 million.
But when it came time for the federal government to pay the piper, Zeldin and the EPA refused, calling it a “boondoggle.” That decision set off an immediate legal battle, which was recently resolved in favor of the Solar For All recipients. Despite a federal court order that the government dish out the funds, the EPA has yet to loosen its purse strings, leaving questions as to whether the agency will appeal the decision — or even ignore it entirely.
“This is a program that has the potential to lower people’s energy bills, get inexpensive clean electricity on the grid, and help the communities that the Solar For All program was designed to help,” senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation James Crowley, who is representing plaintiffs in one of the court cases, told WBUR.
Though it might be one of the more ironic examples of Zeldin’s EPA shooting itself in the foot, it’s hardly the first. Zeldin, a former center-right Republican turned MAGA-die hard, has moved aggressively to dismantle dozens of environmental regulations since winning the job, many of which were explicitly designed to protect poor American communities.
So while Trump’s side may have lost handily in the midterms, it’s clear his administration’s war on poor and working class Americans is far from over — as the ongoing refusal to release cheap, green energy makes abundantly clear.
More on solar energy: Solar Panels Are Now Producing So Much Power That They’re Leaving Nuclear Plants in the Dust
