The General Services Administration (GSA) is retiring approximately 8,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging plugs across a range of government properties. The GSA, which oversees federal buildings and supports federal agencies, says that the EV chargers are no longer considered “mission critical,” and is now instructing federal workers to begin deactivating all of the chargers installed at federal buildings across the U.S. in the coming weeks. The agency currently operates several hundred charging stations, which are available for charging both government-owned vehicles and vehicles owned by federal employees.
Per a report by The Verge, which cites sources familiar with the matter, official guidance on the EV charger shutdown will be issued internally next week. The GSA is also canceling service contracts that keep the chargers operational, with stations being shut down “at the breaker.”
In addition to removing charging access, the GSA is looking to offload recently acquired electric vehicles that were part of the Biden administration’s effort to electrify the federal fleet. The exact fate of these vehicles remains unclear, although they may be stored or sold. The federal government had previously committed to replace a swath of ICE-based federal vehicles with new electric vehicles. Under an initiative by President Biden, the GSA had ordered 58,000 all-electric vehicles and installed 25,000 charging ports to support the long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning toward a net-zero footprint.
The recent policy reversal aligns with a broader shift under the Trump administration, which has been keen to roll back Biden-era electric vehicle policies, including a $5 billion public EV charger infrastructure program. The GSA is also actively working to reduce the government’s real estate footprint, including the sale of approximately 500 federal buildings as the Trump administration moves to shrink the size of the U.S. government.
As of now, the GSA has not issued a public statement regarding the decision to shut down the federal charging network.
Comments
My concern is that the GSA may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I believe that the private sector is better at building out the EV infrastructure than the government. And most of the incentives are going to people in the top tax brackets. And I do not think that EVs are at the point that they should be a big part of the government fleet. And which EVs would the government buy? Teslas? That would be questionable.
That being said, I do not see the point in removing existing chargers or retiring existing EVs… at least not on the face of it. Los Angeles and Boulder bought a ton of EVs and then let them sit to the point of ruin. It was a waste of tax dollars. However, if the usage justifies the cost, then keep them. If not, then it may be best to cut their losses.
I just hope this is well-thought out and rational rather than reactionary. We need level headed governance.
Unfortunately there hasn’t been a level headed action as of yet under Trump.
TRUTH.
Other than at 35Trillion debt, and 3 trillion deficit and 1 trillion interest every year, if there’s any hope of avoiding France 1789 economic collapse. They need to be saving any penny they can, hence the shuddering of penny production 🤪. I’d expect sales of many of the soon to be empty federal buildings next as a way of freeing up capital.
In all honesty, the only way I see of digging out of this whole is through trust busting and criminal indictment of the FEDERAL Reserve. They’re the ones who pushed through lobbying for the government to spend beyond its means. Take the FED down, and through criminal trial, “conifiscate” a large portion of the debt. Now doing that could cause the collapse of the dollar, so you wouldn’t be able to confiscate all of it, as you need to maintain balance sheet amounts for the breaking up of the FED banks so they can be restructured, also, you can’t even begin to do that without having a strong economy with Gold, Oil and minerals on your federal balance sheet, or your a paper tiger who will be cut off financially in a time your tetering on a recession. Hence the movement of the current administration to secure deals with Ukraine/Greenland on minerals, opening up the Gulf and Alaskan oil, and an Audit of the Gold reserve at FT Knox.
Interesting….I wonder if that $5 billion dollars was actually wasteful spending or “fraudulent” of OUR hard earned tax payer dollars?? I’m sick and tired of watching all of this corruption. It’s amazing how many people don’t need to be actually employed to run a business effectively. Look how many people Musk got rid of and cleaned up X..Twitter and now it has free speech!!!
Do you seriously think Twitter/X has free speech? Try writing something negative about Musk and see what happens to your account. I’m on my 3rd account since he took over. His 11th Commandment is “Thou shalt not disagree, put down or say anything negative against Elon lest ye be stricken from the site because he is the one God and Trump is King”.
It has a heck of a lot more free speech then it did 4 years ago. Heck, even Zuckerberg admitted his Facebook was told by the Bidumb administration to censor what conswrvative people were saying…..do alittle research
Yep I read that on Reuters and Al Jazeera. And they call Trump a dictator? Look at the pot calling the kettle black. Mr Xi should be proud of the Dems.
So, waste is waste. If Musk was looking out for himself, I don’t think he would be removing chargers. They would have been quietly skipped over for the purging that has been needed for decades.
Nor would he be supporting the elimination of the EV tax credit to fund electric rich people toys at the expense of Americans that can’t even afford basic cars.
Musk already said he was in favor of ending the credit because with his billions, he can support the a dwindling EV sales market until others drop out of the game and he gains all the market share. Also, I bought my first EV used for $5000, my second on for $12,000. That seems pretty affordable to me.
Oh second hand yes. That goes in line with my prediction that these cars won’t hold resale value for s***. And wait till the masses become well aware of battery degradation. These cars after 5-10 years with a bad battery will simply get junked because the vehicle isn’t worth the value of a battery replacement effectively totaling the car entirely.
He is looking out for himself. These chargers have a CCS charging standard, Tesla use NACS standard, so Tesla can’t use them, so it is to his advantage if they are all taken out. They will probably reverse their decision and install Tesla chargers later.
The NACS charger IS originally the Tesla charge port. Tesla developed it and the rest of the industry decided to adopt it eventually replacing the J1772. Also, how would Tesla “benefit” from this other than allowing non-Teslas to charge at Tesla stations? All other chargers will eventually switch to NACS too so this isn’t an “everything to Elon” change. If you want EVs to be used by the masses, you need to standardize charging. We can’t have proprietary charging otherwise mass adaption isn’t going to work when its more convenient to universally fill up gas anywhere but can’t charge anywhere.
Shut up, Teslas can use any “ccs” level 2 charger with a $16 physical adapter they all come with. Any other EV can use Tesla chargers with a similar adapter. This stuff isn’t that complicated, they are all compatible. The idea of turning off charging equipment is completely insane, the investment is the installation, not the electricity.
Tesla owners must be doubling down on their Therapy Sessions .
I’ve doubled my anti-psychotic, anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications and I don’t own a Tesla. Now, I’m trying to find a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist to marry.
Why would you think Musk would care about this? He doesn’t collect any revenue from chargers at government buildings.
Remember when the early adopter Tesla fanboys dreamed of making out with Elon?
After we no longer have a Federal Government, just like Russia did in 1991, none of this will be a problem. Just have to change everything to say “States of America” , because there will be no federal government, like like the USSR ended, so will the United. No problem. This is what he people wanted. Do you still need congressmen and Senators when you have no more federal government ?
If there were no federal government, many red states would be in trouble. Texas and Ohio would be fine. Florida depends on tourists, and the rest would struggle.
Ya, and your democratic run blue cities would be run into the ground by CRIME, DRUGS, and ILLEGALS, oh wait….that’s what it’s like already…proceed.
IDK, the I65 corridor (Indiana/Kentucky/Tennessee) have largely displaced Detroit, and unless you want cars, that’s about half your auto production in the United States with those 3 red states. Want food? Gonna need to buy from Indiana, Iowa and the Dakotas. Want oil? Then your gonna need Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. Insurance and banking is prevelant in Georgia and South Carolina. West Virginia you can’t kill. Thats been tried over a dozen times, and somehow it’s still hanging on. Delaware is toast as there would be no point to the state if you can Incorporate a large corporation there without federal advantages, and NY, Cali and Washington would be screwed without their SALT advantages. I thing the states with people that work (red) would do very well. I’d like to see how Newscum fairs.
Less than half of the voters voted for orange boy, so stop saying that this is what “we” wanted. Despicable russian agent. Putin has something on him, that’s why he’s a puppet!
If you can charge your car for free at work why dont they give us gas cards for ice cars
The chargers are not free, try reading something other than Faux News.
This is extremely stupid, but not surprising. These chargers are already installed, and probably make money for the government. But the Luddites in the Trump administration just want to try to hold back the future and waste more money.
Hard to say. My employer did provide free charging for sometime and I took full advantage of it. Then they started charging a fee which is about the same as charging at home. Why pay the same rate to park 1/4 mile away and take a shuttle when I can charge conveniently at home and park at the entrance of the building. Use has dwindled down a bit ever since they started charging the fee. Plus two have been broken for a few months now. Cost money to maintain the chargers.
People who live in Apartments/Condos don’t have the option to charge at home.
Then I’d suggest saving money up and investing in buying a home, and gain equity in it……but so many people have their priorities backwards and would rather drive a fancy new electric car and live in an apartment!!!
I see it all the time in my profession. Ha e a $1000 to $1500 car payment instead of living in a nice home!!
Not everyone is made to own a house. I as a first time house owner after owning two condos before am realizing all the work that has to go into just maintaining it and keeping the home from going into disrepair. Luckily I make pretty decent so I can pay a handyman for things I cannot do but I certainly had to learn to get crafty and do some light plumbing and electrical work because otherwise I would be in the red.
The condos atleast you only have to worry about the inside. The rest is HOA covered. I know when my kid is living on his own I will downsize to a condo or townhouse atleast.
That is not the employers problem.
You don’t need federal buildings if there isn’t Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. It’s a waste of money take care of the disabled and elderly, they’re not contributing!
First of all, they did contribute throughout their life. Secondly, with your line of “reasoning”, maybe you would suggest having gas chambers to do away with them. Maybe when you become either disabled or elderly you would volunteer to be at the front of the line. I can’t believe you can be so lacking in empathy! So sad.
I am retired, I am on Medicare for now, until it’s not available. Same with SS, not drawing it yet and it probably won’t be there anyway. Just hoping the market doesn’t do what it did in 2008 under Republican leadership, and I like both President Bush. You need to be worried.
Trump is trying to fix these things but takes time and ignorant Dims fight him every step of the way.