Landry administration goes from praising to panning Solar for All program

Gov. Jeff Landry is voicing a change of heart regarding the Solar for All program, launched under President Joe Biden to provide cleaner power and reduce electric bills for some 900,000 low-income Americans.

After his administration initially supported plans for the $156 million given to Louisiana in April 2024 – and dubbed the state’s initiative Solar for Y’all – the governor now considers the program a “green pipe dream” of the left that he says would bleed taxpayers and drive up electricity rates.

The Trump administration announced last week it was ending the $7 billion Solar for All program. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin claimed in a social media post Friday that Congress “eliminated” the Solar for All program in Republicans’ recent tax and spending law, labeling it a “grift” from which middlemen have profited with very few projects having materialized.

Until Zeldin’s announcement, the Landry administration seemed fully onboard with the program. It saw the money as another pool of federal resources to put into storm resiliency and energy infrastructure.

On Monday, however, the governor quickly turned against the solar program.

Landry took to social media to criticize the program and made similar comments when the Illuminator asked what he would say to Louisiana companies and community organizations that have already invested in the initiative.

“The left’s green schemes have only resulted in higher bills, weaker grids, and more debt,” Landry said Wednesday through a spokesperson. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and Administrator Zeldin we are ending wasteful spending and putting America first.”

There’s no data to back up the governor’s claims because Solar for Y’all projects have yet to take shape. Although the federal funds had been allocated to Louisiana, the state was still in the process of creating its program when Trump halted the grant with an executive order shortly after taking office in January.

The governor’s current stance on Solar for All contrasts starkly with praise his administration had for the program last year.

Tyler Gray, Landry’s handpicked secretary of the Department of Energy and Natural Resources, described Solar for All as a unique opportunity to build backup power systems in areas of the state at high risk from hurricanes and severe storms.

“Louisiana is in a uniquely positioned to benefit from this federal investment, with so much of its population in the areas of highest risk for devastating storms, such as Hurricanes Ida and Laura in recent years, that create widespread and long-lasting power outages,” Gray stated in an April 22, 2024 news release.

Backups for storm power outages in question

Created under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Solar for All has spurred major investments in traditional and clean energy production in Republican-controlled states. The solar grants, one of many components of the law, provided funding to state agencies, municipalities, tribal governments and nonprofit organizations to deliver affordable energy to low-income households.

The Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources was among its 60 grant recipients. A portion of its $156 million was slotted to pay for solar panels on single-family homes and small multifamily units, with the goal of helping residents save a minimum of 20% on their utility bills. Paired with battery storage systems, the household solar arrays were intended to reduce household grid dependence during peak electricity demand.

Solar for Y’all also planned to offer low-interest loans for community solar projects, which provide neighborhood-level emergency backup power and can sell extra electricity to the larger grid.

Gray expressed support for using the federal money for these local solar hubs, which would help communities avoid long power outages after hurricanes and other severe weather. In 2021, the average Louisiana utility customer experienced more than 80 hours of power outages as a result of extreme weather, compared with a national average of seven hours, according to the Department of Energy and Natural Resources.

“Through this program, Louisiana can create a sustainable foundation for long-term impact and benefit for those most threatened and most in need,” Gray said last year.

Local solar hubs have already gained traction. The nonprofit civic and church coalition Together Louisiana has so far helped develop 15 “community lighthouses” and envisions more than 80 total around the state. Its idea caught on in 2021 after many household gas and diesel generators ran out of fuel or broke down in the wake of Hurricane Ida. The initiative is funded with a mix of federal, state, local and private dollars.

One such “lighthouse” is at a Catholic convent in New Orleans East, where the Sisters of the Holy Family operate one for the surrounding neighborhood and want to build a separate, larger-scale community “solar garden” on an adjacent tract of land. The solar garden, which is slightly smaller than a solar farm, would deliver power to about 700 nearby homes in the low-income area.

The nuns were counting on a loan from Solar for Y’all to help pay for their $15 million project, according to Nathalie Jordi, a New Orleans hotel owner who is helping develop the project. With planning completed and construction contracts secured, the convent was likely going to be the program’s pilot project, she said.

“This kinda pulls out the rug from all of us,” Jordi said. “It’s definitely a stressful time.”

The nuns have been able to find financing elsewhere and are on track to close their loan this month.

Economic models expected the $156 million in federal funding would be paired with roughly $74 million in private capital, according to the Louisiana Clean Energy Fund, a nonprofit grant subrecipient that was going to manage solar program loans. The Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association estimated the $156 million in federal money would yield a total economic impact between $468 million and $780 million in Louisiana.

Louisiana could keep federal dollars

Although the Trump administration claims Solar for All was repealed, Congress rescinded only the funds that had not been obligated at the time the One Big Beautiful Bill was approved, according to lawyers with the program.

The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the legislation’s fiscal impact at the time and determined only $19 million was still uncommitted. The vast majority of the Solar for All funds, including the $156 million slated for Louisiana, was already allocated through contracts with the grant recipients.

Attorneys for nonprofit groups invested in the program are urging grant recipients to enforce those contracts.

Jillian Blanchard, an attorney with the advocacy group Lawyers for Good Government, said language in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is very clear — it does not touch obligated funds. The Trump administration knows it would probably lose in court, so they make these shocking announcements just to try to scare the grant recipients into folding, she said.

“This is legally completely unfounded what they’re doing,” Blanchard said. “It’s really, really important for states, no matter their political leanings, to protect the rule of law …This should not be a political analysis by the state. This should be pure economics.”

Blanchard said Louisiana could easily keep the money if Gov. Landry wanted it. The state has just less than three weeks left to file a legal challenge against the EPA’s decision, she said.

If the state refuses to act, Blanchard said grant subrecipients could mount their own legal challenges against the Trump administration.

“They’re setting a terrible precedent right now for businesses and industries,” she said. “If this [president] does not stand by its contracts and promises … complete markets are created and ruined by these types of things. … For people who care about this, now’s the time to make their voices heard.”

e Energy Industries Association estimated the $156 million in federal money would yield a total economic impact between $468 million and $780 million in Louisiana.