September 9, 2025
Attorney General Charity R. Clark
Office of the Vermont Attorney General
109 State St.
Montpelier, VT 05609
Dear Attorney General Clark:
We write to express our opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) attempt to dissolve the Solar for All program, including terminating our state’s grant under that program. We are grateful for your leadership on several fronts already, and we urge you to use every legal and advocacy tool at your disposal to push back against this unwarranted action as well. Losing this funding will prevent thousands of low income Vermonters from seeing their energy costs lowered.
As you know, in April 2024, EPA announced that Vermont would receive $62.4 million under the Solar for All program. This announcement followed a rigorous and competitive application process, during which the Vermont Department of Public Service (PSD) worked tirelessly to develop a program that would expand access to low-cost distributed energy technologies in our state. EPA ultimately awarded funds to PSD for its plan to lower energy costs for thousands of people across Vermont. Since then, PSD has worked closely with EPA and other state partners to ensure that this public investment has the structure, guardrails, and oversight needed to ensure efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars.
Vermont’s Solar for All program is a historic investment in energy affordability and economic development. PSD’s proposal would allow thousands of low income homeowners, renters and residents of multi-family affordable housing projects who otherwise are not likely to be able to access the benefits of going solar to do so. Thanks to this program, thousands of households across Vermont would gain access to low-cost, reliable solar energy that would lower their electricity bills each year – all while boosting grid resilience and promoting energy independence. Given the Trump Administration’s stated commitment to lowering energy costs for all Americans, the proposed termination of Vermont’s Solar for All grant is baffling.
EPA’s proposed termination could not come at a worse time for hardworking families and small businesses across Vermont. Solar for All funds are exclusively designated for use in low-income, rural, and other disadvantaged communities where people are already struggling to make ends meet. These investments are required to slash household electricity costs by 20 percent,
lowering electricity bills for each household that benefits from the program by $400 each year.
Moreover, our state is already putting these funds to work. PSD has committed time, energy, and resources in developing our state’s Solar for All program and ensuring that it delivers for people across Vermont. Terminating PSD’s grant would waste federal funding that has already
been spent, denying hardworking families the benefits of those investments, and overturning the existing agreement in place between the PSD and the EPA.
EPA’s attempt to terminate Vermont’s Solar for All program is misguided and unjustified. If EPA succeeds, everyday people across Vermont will be forced to foot the bill through higher electricity bills. We thank you for any effort you may have already put into defending Vermont’s funding for this program and, in general, urge you to take any and all action within your power, including partnering with other affected states, to protect low-income consumers in Vermont from this shortsighted power grab. We appreciate your leadership and stand ready to support your efforts in any way possible.
Sincerely,
350VT
Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity
Conservation Law Foundation
Renewable Energy Vermont
Vermont Climate and Health Alliance
Vermont Conservation Voters
Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club
Vermont Law and Graduate School, Energy Clinic
Vermont Natural Resources Council
Vermont Public Interest Research Group