The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to terminate a $7 billion solar energy program that supports projects in marginalized communities, according to Tribal Business News.
The EPA is ending the Solar For All program, which allocated funds for 63 grant recipients to finance and develop solar projects.
Among the grant recipients are Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association, which was scheduled to received $62.3 million and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which was scheduled to receive $62.5 million.
Without continued access to that funding, many tribal projects are going to falter at a critical point, said Daniel Wiggins, Jr., executive director of MTERA.
MTERA had already laid groundwork for projects supporting each of its 35 member tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
“This program was probably one of a kind – we had strategies in place to target every reservation in the Midwest,” Wiggins told Tribal Business News. “Pulling this money out from under us isn’t just devastating to the tribes, but to the communities and regions where those tribes reside — regions that would have had positive economic and environmental impacts with each of the subawards we were making.”
The WEDC program, PowerUp Wisconsin, intended to assist disadvantaged communities in Wisconsin by installing solar on single-family and multifamily residential properties and reducing energy bills.
The WEDC said, “The strength of the Wisconsin Technical College System and other workforce partners will be leveraged as they are already training individuals for clean energy careers, particularly solar installation.”
