Gary power outage underscores stakes of Solar for All cancellation

After storms and tornadoes hit northwest Indiana this month, thousands of residents in Gary went without power for up to two weeks, one of the longest outages in modern U.S. history. Local leaders say the pain could have been eased by rooftop solar panels and batteries, which would have let people keep phones charged, food and medicine cold, and medical devices running during the blackout.

That kind of setup was actually in the works. Gary officials had planned to use federal Solar for All money to install hundreds of solar arrays, batteries, community solar, and a resiliency hub where residents could get power and support during emergencies. Indiana had been awarded $117 million through the program, part of the Inflation Reduction Act, with tens of millions earmarked for Gary and other cities. The Trump administration canceled Solar for All last August, putting those plans on hold. A nonprofit involved in distributing the funds is suing the EPA over the cancellation, but no ruling has come yet.

For homeowners, the bigger issue is cost: solar-plus-battery systems remain expensive to install upfront, and without a program like Solar for All covering that cost, lower-income households often can't access them even though they'd cut both outage risk and monthly electric bills. Some states, including Illinois, run their own Solar for All-style programs, so it's worth checking whether your state offers similar help even with the federal version gone.