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The United States is hopelessly broken, with red states and blue states at each other’s throats more and more. Not since the Civil War has the country been so divided, with one half of states determined to promote an inclusive society that honors the contributions of all citizens and the other half equally determined to construct a white male dominated society that punishes anyone who lost the lottery of life at birth or prays to the wrong god.
About the only branch of government that still functions as the Founders envisioned is the court system and even that has been badly compromised by a s…
Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.
The United States is hopelessly broken, with red states and blue states at each other’s throats more and more. Not since the Civil War has the country been so divided, with one half of states determined to promote an inclusive society that honors the contributions of all citizens and the other half equally determined to construct a white male dominated society that punishes anyone who lost the lottery of life at birth or prays to the wrong god.
About the only branch of government that still functions as the Founders envisioned is the court system and even that has been badly compromised by a slew of MAGA judges who are sworn to uphold the madness of King Donald, no matter what the law says. Today we have liberty and justice for white males and prison or deportation for everyone else.
Reuters reports that nearly two dozen states are now suing the administration over its cancellation of the $7 billion Solar For All grants meant to expand access to solar energy in low income communities. It was also intended to expand community solar initiatives, which bring solar power to people who don’t own their own homes or otherwise can’t install their own solar panels.
The program was projected to help 900,000 households access solar energy so they could reduce their use of fossil fuels and lower their utility bills. The participating households were expected to collectively save more than $350 million each year on utility costs. Of course, the savings would come from burning less methane and coal, and we can’t have that, not when the federal government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry.
The majority of those 900,000 households were located in so-called red states, so you might think the Solar For All program would be welcome across the country. Not so. It turns out that while the federal government is shoveling $90 billion to a handful of tech billionaires to help them build data centers, the idea of helping low- and moderate-income Americans is too horrifying for MAGAlomaniacs to even contemplate. So the EPA — led by presidential jock sniffer Lee Zeldin — is planing to claw back the $7 billion promised by the Solar For All initiative. We’ve got to find the money for those tech bros somewhere, after all.
On October 16, 2025, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced two lawsuits by a group of states that were previously approved received grants under the Solar for All program. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the termination of the program in August, calling it a “boondoggle.” [But apparently propping up a dictator in Argentina with $40 billion taxpayer dollars is not. Lying is all these people know.]
California will lose around $250 million in funding approved by Congress for the Solar For All program. “The administration is trying to hold us in the past, tethered to fossil fuel companies. In doing so, [it] is making America more expensive and more polluted,” Bonta said.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said cancellation of the program would impact 11,000 households in Arizona and cause their utility bills to jump by 20 percent after the state lost $156 million in Solar for All funding. “Without this program, for many Arizonans, clean energy will be out of reach,” Mayes said. said
She added that cancellation of the program would hit disadvantaged communities the hardest, citing the Hopi tribe of northern Arizona which was slated to get a $25 million award to bring electricity to the community. For many tribal members, it would be the first time ever that they had electricity in their homes.
The complaints were filed 10 days after a group of solar companies and labor unions sued to restore the Solar For All program. In addition to California and Arizona, states participating in the lawsuits include Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the city of Washington D.C.
Federal Judge In Louisiana Tosses LNG Terminal Permit
In other court related news of interest to CleanTechnica readers, Jack Brook of The Hill reported on October 16, 2025 that Judge Penelope Richard of Louisiana state court has invalidated a key permit for a liquefied natural gas facility in Cameron Parish that was approved by the administration earlier this year. The ruling ordered the state to review how planet warming emissions from the LNG facility would affect Gulf Coast communities that are vulnerable to sea level rise and extreme weather. Three of America’s eight existing LNG export terminals are located in Cameron Parish, and several more are proposed or under construction there.
“Cameron Parish is ground zero for the relentless expansion of the gas export industry,” said Anne Rolfes, founder of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group involved in the litigation. “We’re going to stop it and this is an important step in that process.” Clay Garside, an attorney representing the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, added, “This is the first time any court has vacated a permit for a Commonwealth LNG facility based on the government’s refusal to consider climate change impacts.”
Earlier this year, energy secretary Chris “Mad Dog” Wright reversed a Biden-era pause on exports of LNG as part of his goal to boost natural gas exports and promote US “energy dominance.” Jennifer Granholm, who served as Biden’s energy secretary had warned a year ago that “unfettered exports” of liquefied natural gas would lead to a dangerous increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
Lyle Hanna, a Commonwealth LNG spokesperson, said “we are disappointed with the District Court’s decision, and we are exploring all available legal options. Louisiana’s attorney general Liz Murrill sputtered and fumed while vowing to appeal the decision that vacated the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy’s coastal use permit for the facility. “Sadly even state court judges are not immune from climate activism,” Murrill said.
Last year, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. ordered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reassess Commonwealth LNG’s air pollution, including its greenhouse gas emissions. In June, the commission gave the project a greenlight on the grounds that its construction was in the public interest. In regulatory filings, the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy said that “climate change is currently beyond the scope” of the state’s regulatory review.
But Judge Richard rejected that position, ruling that state environmental regulators have a duty to consider how the LNG facility, along with other similar facilities clustered nearby, would impact extreme weather events, storm severity, and sea-level rise in a state where land area equivalent to a football field disappears every 100 minutes.
Richard also ordered state regulators to analyze the facility’s impacts on local communities, especially those living in poverty or relying on fishing for their livelihoods — “defining characteristic” of the parish, she said. The LNG terminal could destroy marshes, harm water quality, and displace residents but “none of it was considered in terms of impacts on environmental justice communities,” the judge wrote in her decision.
Commercial fisherman Eddie LeJuine, a lifelong Cameron Parish resident, told The Hill he applauded the ruling. He said the build out of LNG infrastructure, including dredging for shipping channels, has significantly harmed the fishing industry. “The fishermen are barely hanging on with a thread,” LeJuine said. “These plants are killing the estuary and killing our livelihoods. We’re getting extinct.” Local fishermen like LeJuine say the onslaught of saltwater and sediment will kill off large amounts of oysters, crabs, and fish.
How long do you think will be before some higher court in Louisiana — the most polluted state in the US — overturns Judge Richard’s decision? A week? A month? You can bet it won’t take long as Louisiana continues to throw its citizens under the bus to please the oil and gas industries.
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