- A federal judge has halted President Donald Trump’s unilateral freeze of billions of dollars in funding for DC fast-chargers.
- The chargers were being funded under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, launched under the Biden administration.
- Sixteen states and the District of Columbia sued over the move.
The oil-and-gas-loving Trump administration has led an assault on everything from electric vehicle tax credits to the stop-start feature on internal-combustion vehicles. But not all of its plans have worked out when the courts get involved.
In the latest setback to the administration’s electrification walkback goals, a federal judge in Washington state overruled Trump’s freezing of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, which allocated billions of dollars for public EV fast-charging.
According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin ordered charger funding to be released in 14 states. Lin ruled that the Trump administration overstepped its constitutional authority when it halted charger funding, which was approved by Congress, at the outset of the year.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia sued over the move; Lin ruled that D.C., Minnesota and Vermont “did not provide enough evidence that they would face ‘irreparable harm’ if the money wasn’t immediately freed up.”
Where this goes next is unclear. The order will go into effect in July unless the Trump administration appeals. If it does not, it secures billions of dollars in EV charger funding once thought to be lost, and the buildout of America’s DC fast-charging network will continue with federal support.
About $3.3 billion in funding had already been unlocked by states, but much of it has not yet been spent or committed to projects. The program was left in a sort of gray area after the Trump administration ordered its funding to be rescinded.
Photo by: Tim Stevens/InsideEVs
The NEVI program was established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed during the Biden administration. It allocated $5 billion to establish a nationwide network of EV chargers over a span of five years. Federally funding DC fast-charging projects is widely seen as key to getting America’s electric infrastructure up and running, convincing buyers to go electric and speeding up the entire EV industry. NEVI money was allocated to the states, which then doled it out to private-sector grant applicants.
The NEVI projects were a frequent source of criticism, however. By mid-2024, only eight NEVI-funded charging stations had opened in six states, despite the program kicking off three years earlier. Many of them ran into the same complex permitting issues that any DC fast-charging project might encounter, but they were perceived as moving too slowly to keep up with EV adoption.
But as InsideEVs Contributing Editor and State of Charge host Tom Moloughney explained earlier this year, the final rules for the program weren’t even available until February 2023, and many projects were well outside of state officials’ expertise. All things considered, charging advocates said, the program moved more quickly than people realized.
While the private sector is continuing to build out chargers, losing NEVI funding was widely seen as a blow to America’s charging efforts. Nonetheless, charging projects in general have accelerated in recent months, even with the NEVI program in limbo. As we reported recently, DC fast-charging ports are now being installed at the highest pace the U.S. has ever seen and the year should end with thousands more plugs built than in 2024.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com