A federal judge in Washington state has ordered the Trump administration to resume distributing money to build EV chargers to 14 states, which had sued to challenge the ongoing freeze on those funds.
An electric car charges at a mall parking lot on June 27, 2022 in Corte Madera, California. The average price for a new electric car has surged 22 percent in the past year as automakers like Tesla, GM and Ford seek to recoup commodity and logistics costs.
Trump administration pauses $3 billion marked for electric vehicle charging stations
Billions of dollars are at stake, which Congress had allocated to the states in order to install high-speed chargers along highway corridors. The Department of Transportation announced a temporary pause in distributing those funds in February, saying that new guidance for applying for the funding would be published this spring. No new guidance has been published, and the funds remain paused.
The court order is a preliminary injunction, not a final decision in the case itself. The judge also added a seven-day pause before it goes into effect, to allow the administration time to appeal the decision. After seven days, if no appeal has been filed, the Department of Transportation would have to stop withholding funds from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program and distribute them to the 14 states.
While the legal battle is ongoing, the judge’s ruling is an early win for the states and a setback for the Trump administration. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is co-leading the suit, said in a statement he was pleased with the order, while the Sierra Club called it “only a first step” toward the full restoration of the funds.
Post time: Jun-28-2025