US Democrat senators have expressed their "strong opposition" to the new Trump-Vance administration's cutoff of funding for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.
The NEVI program — included in the bipartisan infrastructure law — was introduced by the Biden-Harris administration in 2021 to provide US$5bn in funding directly to states for installing public EV charging stations.
Earlier this month a memo from Emily Biondi, associate administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Planning, Environment and Realty to state Department of Transportation directors, stated: “The new leadership of the Department of Transportation has decided to review the policies underlying the implementation of the NEVI Formula Program. Accordingly, the current NEVI Formula Program Guidance dated June 11, 2024, and all prior versions of this guidance are rescinded."
Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), led all Democratic members of the Committee in a letter to Secretary of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy seeking a response about what Whitehouse said was the abrupt cutoff of NEVI funds.
The FWHA memo to state departments of transportation announced states will no longer have access to US$3bn in previously approved federal funds for future construction projects.
Senators Whitehouse, Sanders, Merkley, Markey, Kelly, Padilla, Schiff, Blunt Rochester, and Alsobrooks wrote in a letter to Secretary Duffy: “This action shows blatant disrespect for the law and for constitutional order. Established in the bipartisan infrastructure law, the NEVI program provides funding for every state in the nation.”
The NEVI program invests in states to accelerate the nationwide buildout of public EV charging infrastructure. States have already awarded more than US$510m in NEVI funding to construct charging ports, with more contracts ready to move forward.
The Democrat sentaors stated in a press release: "By pulling this funding, the Trump administration is jeopardizing planned construction that could establish charging stations every 50 miles along 70 percent of major travel corridors by the end of 2055. Expanding access to reliable chargers will give Americans more choices in vehicles by making clean energy options more practical and by reducing dependence on expensive, dirty fossil-fueled cars. If implemented, NEVI investments will help curb the carbon pollution driving climate change, which itself poses an increasing threat to the U.S. economy and to American families in the form of higher prices for groceries, insurance, and more."
The “All 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico invested time and resources to prepare their plans, and all plans were approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Your abrupt cutoff of NEVI funding disregards these efforts and subjects states and their partners to delay, uncertainty, and bureaucratic red tape. It also threatens the jobs, innovation, and environmental benefits that this program was ready and authorized to deliver through implementation.
The NEVI program aims to install fast-charging stations on all designated highways so that recharging is available every 50 miles.
