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    Trump Federal Highway Administration Suspends National EV Charging Infrastructure Funding

    Feb. 11, 2025
    The suspension pauses all new NEVI funding approvals, which puts up to $1.5 billion in previously available funding in limbo while the U.S. Department of Transportation reviews its policies.
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    67ab723fabac9b56c9be8202 Ev Charging Dreamstime

    President Trump's moves to re-evaluate and delay many Biden-era energy transition policies continues as the new administration suspends the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funding formula program for the near future.

    The suspension pauses all new NEVI funding approvals, which puts up to $1.5 billion in previously available funding in limbo while the U.S. Department of Transportation reviews its policies, according to a report in Fleet Owner, a sister publication of EnergyTech. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a memo announcing the suspension, which follows other Trump Administration freezes on Biden projects such as clean energy project funding under the Inflation Reduction Act which was signed into law three years ago.

    “Most statutory formula programs require the Secretary (of Transportation) to make the prescribed apportionments to the states on a specific date and then make the funds available for obligation,” reads the memo from Emily Biondi, associate administrator for the FHWA Office of Planning, Environment and Realty, written to the nation’s state Department of Transportation directors. “The NEVI Formula Program, however, is unique in that this program requires the Secretary to approve a plan for each State describing how the state intends to use its NEVI funds.”

    The NEVI formula requires that state DOT plans be developed in accordance with guidance by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation on how the states are to strategically deploy the electric vehicle charging network, according to Biondi’s letter.

    “As result of the rescission of the NEVI Formula Program Guidance, FHWA is also immediately suspending the approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans for all fiscal years,” the FHWA associate administrator noted in the letter. “Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new state plans are submitted and approved.”

    The suspension does allow reimbursement of exiting obligations to not disrupt current financial commitments on NEVI-funded projects, the latter concluded. No new obligations can occur until the review is complete.

    Late last week, data about the NEVI on the FHWA website indicated it was a $5 billion formula program spread out over five years. NEVI was appropriated close to $1 billion annually from 2022-2026 under the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Investment Act passed by Congress and signed into law by then President Biden in 2021.

    Attempts to access the NEVI page Tuesday revealed no data and only a link to the FHWA letter by Biondi. The new U.S. Secretary of Transportation is former Wisconsin Republican Congressman and Fox News co-host Sean Duffy, who was nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a 77-22 vote in late January.

    The initial NEVI rollout announced the $5 billion allocation toward developing alternative fuel corridors for EV fast charging stations along 79,000 miles of roads. The first NEVI-funded project was a charging station starting construction in 2023 along Interstate 70 west of Columbus, while other projects were announced in Hawaii, Maine, Colorado, Alaska and Kentucky.

    The NEVI review will include a public comment period before it is renewed. State planners also will receive new instructions on projects for all fiscal years, according to the FHWA memo.

     

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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