Commissioner Simmons Statement on Solar for All Award

On this Earth Day, I am thrilled to highlight the EPA’s announcement that the Texas Solar for All Coalition, of which Tarrant County is a member, has been awarded close to $250 million in federal money for clean energy projects to benefit disadvantaged communities. The Solar for All program is a small subset of the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act legislation, which seeks to lower greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and drive wider societal access to the benefits of clean energy.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank members of the public, many of whom serve on my Precinct 2 Environmental Advisory Committee, who came to Tarrant County Commissioners Court last summer to advocate for us joining the Texas Solar for All Coalition. I am appreciative of my fellow court members, Commissioner Roy Brooks and Commissioner Gary Fickes, who voted in favor of Tarrant County joining the consortium of Texas counties and some cities that had filed the joint application. And finally, I am grateful to my Precinct 2 policy director, Nathan Smith, and our entire Precinct 2 team for their work on this in collaboration with Russell Schaffner, Assistant County Administrator.

I am excited to see how we can use this federal money to provide benefits for some of Tarrant County’s most economically disadvantaged residents while bolstering our grid and improving air quality. I look forward to working with our partners in the Texas Solar for All Coalition to ensure an equitable distribution of funding to all members, which will have the maximum societal benefit.