The US Department Of transport have ordered states to kill their implementation plans related to the National Electric Vehicles Infrastructure Program, according to a memo considered by Wired. The decision in its tracks seems to be a $ 5 billion program designed to finance state projects to install the loading stations of electric vehicles in the United States.
[Updated February 6 at 7 pm EST: The memo is now public.]
Officials at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which runs the program, have ordered state transport directors to the plans that all 50 states have used to set out where and how they are going to build their loading stations, and with which companies they go to contract to contract to do. States followed the plans to build more than 30 loading stations across the US, with hundreds more on the way.
Surveys show that prospective car buyers call the country’s decline infrastructure for electric vehicles as a major reason why they do not buy electrically. The Nevi program, which was established according to the 2021 infrastructure legislation, was the government’s response to this concern. It seeks to build chargers on thousands of miles from the Federal Highway, focusing on places that otherwise cannot support a charger.
According to the memo, transport officers in President Donald Trump’s administration will write all new guidance for the program, which then goes through a public comment period. The timeline suggests that work on the federal financed electric vehicle loader network can wait for months.
The order may be illegal. It can fly before the court orders demanding that the Trump administration “defrost” a financing break that prevents federal money from flowing to state agencies. It may also violate the Administrative Procedures Act, which requires agencies to follow legal procedures before acting.
“There is no legitimate basis for funds allocated to states to build projects that have been” decked “based on policy,” said Andrew Rogers, a former Deputy Administrator and Chief Advocate of the Federal Highway Administration.
The American Dot did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is unclear how the order of the DOT will affect the charge stations under construction. In the letter, FHWA officials write that ‘no new obligations may occur’, suggesting that states cannot sign new contracts with businesses, even if these states have been awarded federal financing. The letter also states: “The remuneration of existing obligations will be allowed”, as the program goes through a review process, which indicates that states may be allowed to repay businesses that have already provided services.
Billions in federal funding have already been paid under the program. Money went to both red and blue states. The best funding recipients included Florida, New York, Texas, Georgia and Ohio last year.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has spent the past few weeks at the head of the Federal so -called Department of Government Efficiency to give “audits” and cut to federal spending. But its electric car business received a $ 31 million grant to the Nevi program, according to a transport official -maintained database, which constitutes 6 percent of the money allocated so far.
The Trump administration said it plans to target electric vehicles and EV-related programs. An executive order that Trump signed in office on his first day claimed to have eliminated the EV mandate, although such a federal policy never existed.
Nevi projects have taken longer to get off the ground than other construction of the levy station, because the federal government was deliberate to grant financing to companies with track records, which can prove that they can build or operate loading stations, Ryan McKinnon says , a spokesman for Charge Ahead Pretic Partnership, a group of businesses and organizations working on loading electric vehicles. If Nevi funding is not paid out, the businesses that have spent time or money investing in this program will be injured, ‘he says.