Native families lose promised solar after federal program cut
Tribally led solar projects on Northern Plains reservations stalled after the Trump administration ended the federal Solar for All program in August 2025, according to Daily Yonder.
Only one home on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation in Montana received residential solar before the program was halted. “It was a gut punch,” Joseph Eagleman, CEO of the Chippewa Cree Energy Corporation, told Daily Yonder. About 200 homes had been expected to get panels through roughly $7.6 million in Solar for All funding earmarked for the tribe, he said.
Eagleman said a $135 million grant to a coalition of 14 tribes in the region would have funded those installations, according to Daily Yonder. The cuts also led to layoffs at Indigenized Energy, a nonprofit that had been preparing tribal solar projects, founder Cody Two Bears told the outlet.
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