States sue Trump administration for blocking funds for electric vehicle charging

Sacramento (US), May 8 (AP) Seventeen states are suing President Donald Trump's administration for withholding billions of dollars for building more electric vehicle chargers, according to a federal lawsuit announced Wednesday.
     The Trump administration in February directed states to stop spending money for electric vehicle charging infrastructure that was allocated under President Joe Biden — part of a broader push by the Republican president to roll back environmental policies advanced by his Democratic predecessor.
     The EV charger programme was set to allocate USD 5 billion over five years to various states, of which an estimated USD 3.3 billion had already been made available.
     The lawsuit is led by attorneys general from California, Colorado and Washington, and challenges the Federal Highway Administration's authority to halt the funding. They argue Congress, which approved the money in 2021 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, holds that authority.
     “These funds were going to be used to shape the future of transportation,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, calling it “short-sighted” of Trump to revoke the funds.
     “We won't sit back while the Trump administration violates the law,” Bonta, a Democrat, said.
     The US Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
     EVs stood at about 8 per cent of new car sales in the US last year, according to Motorintelligence.com, a sign the market is growing — although the pace has slowed as the auto industry tries to convince mainstream buyers about going electric.
     The programme was meant to assuage some concerns and build infrastructure along highway corridors first, then address gaps elsewhere once the state highway obligations were met.
     Some states with projects running under the programme have already been reimbursed by the Biden-era federal funds. Others are still contracting for their sites. Still more had halted their plans by the time the Trump administration ordered states to stop their spending.
     Regardless, getting these chargers installed and operating has been a slow process with contracting challenges, permitting delays and complex electrical upgrades.
     It was expected that states would fight against the federal government's efforts to slow the nation's electric vehicle charger buildout. New York, for example, which is part of the suit, has been awarded over USD 175 million in federal funds from the programme, and state officials say USD 120 million is currently being withheld by the Trump administration.
     Even the electric carmaker Tesla, run by Elon Musk, who has spearheaded Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts to cut federal spending, benefited greatly from funding under the programme, receiving millions of dollars to expand its already-massive footprint of chargers in the US.
     Despite threats to the programme, experts have said they expect the nation's EV charging buildout to continue as automakers look to make good on massive electrification ambitions. (AP) NPK
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)