U.S. President Donald Trump is the target of a lawsuit from 17 states claiming that his suspension of federal funding “will devastate the ability of states to build the charging infrastructure necessary for making EVs accessible for more consumers.”
The suit is in response to the Trump administration’s suspension of the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program back in early February, as Automotive News reports.
The far-flung group of states launching the suit ranges from California and Washington State to less expected states such as Arizona and Wisconsin, along with the District of Columbia itself. The suit, filed in Seattle, claims that the President lacks authority to block the funds and calls for their release to help continue the flow of money to building out EV infrastructure.
According to the plaintiffs, the funding suspension will not only make it harder for people to switch over to EV use, but will damage state economies that are entwined with the move to greener transport. The loss of funding will also contribute to more pollution and release of greenhouse gases, the lawsuit asserts.
Wisconsin governor Tony Evers is a vocal participant in the lawsuit, saying that his state is “suing to force the Trump Administration to release these funds so we can get back to work building the 21st-century infrastructure Wisconsinites need and deserve.”
Meanwhile, California’s Gavin Newsom fulminated that “instead of hawking Teslas on the White House lawn, President Trump could actually help Elon – and the nation – by following the law and releasing this bipartisan funding.” He blasted the move as “yet another Trump gift to China.” Other governors and state attorneys general issued similar statements.
Relatedly, the General Services Administration (GSA) shut down about 8,000 EV chargers at federal buildings as Trump began the rollback of Biden’s electrification policies following his inauguration. Stringent emissions rules put in place during the Biden administration also went on the chopping block in March.
While automakers supported the Trump administration’s actions on the new emissions rules, which they previously protested were impossible to achieve in the short timeframe provided with current technology, they also pushed the Republican president to continue funding new EV charging infrastructure.
The Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA), of which GM is a member, said that federal funding for EV chargers “is an effective and important element of a truly strategic energy policy that promotes U.S. innovation, domestic investment and energy security.”
The lawsuit says that it is illegal for Trump to suspend part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) while the act is still in force; that the president cannot freeze congressionally approved funding with an executive order; and that no “valid explanation” was provided for suddenly canceling previously approved state EV infrastructure plans, among other breaches of law.
Comments
Why to the public need to pay for them
Exactly, just as gas station owners pay for their own. Let the EV company foot the bill, not us.
And you think they did when they first started out back in the day? Why do we keep our military at a what 100+ Bil cost to keep the waterways open so oil can flow yet we are suppose to be energy independent and then lets see how much the gas costs everyone! The chargers push costs is a pittance to all the big oil writeoffs after what 100years of that industry as well as our military expeses so its more than just a gas station!
Cause we’re nice people. We probably should let the strait of Hormuz be shut down and then raise oil to 150$/barrel, but make it free here. That is how other countries do things, but I digress, we are nice people. We took out the dict@tor of Iraq, and handed back their oil just to pay 5$/gallon and build Dubai, we handed almost half a trillion to Ukraine, and have funded europes lifestile, were stupid, nice, but stupid.
You are anything but nice people. And you are all over the place with your senseless comments.
ha ha, looks like you just lost at the polls again, lefty.
Agreed ! Plus, in NC a .83 cent per gallon gas tax is applied to each fuel sale, for me it averages $44 a month for my Trax’s gas bill … and that’s just for my car, ditto dollars for the wife’s car. In NC EV owners pay just $250 road tax when the renew their car tags … that’s not enough ! Put a flat $12 road tax on each charge that they do … then they’d pay their fair share in road use an sales taxes, liberals want us to pay “our fair share” so should they (EV owners). And for those who charge at home, no difference I’m sure there’s a way to connect the home chargers as to allow them to pay their fair share.
why does the Public/Government have to pay for the millions in oil subsides to the oil companies every year.
Dear dumbo-the-parrot…..Oil “subsidies”, that you clearly know absolutely NOTHING about, are incentives to encourage expensive and risky prospecting and exploration for new oil fields. Once a well “comes in” and enters production, each and every barrel produced is taxed until the well runs dry. Those taxes that are collected over years of production, more than make-up the incentives for exploration. Try getting your information from somewhere else than you have been lied to.
This should be a state level ordeal. In NJ, since Trump won there has been a massive surge in charge station installations. Many Tesla and many ChargePoint. In my area of Bergen County, EVs are pretty popular but its a perfect example to allow the market to dictate. If its true the claim that EVs are gaining popularity then there is no need to have taxpayers subsidize it. It will evolve on its own natural path.
A president had the authority to start the idiotic federal government funding. Thus, a president has the authority to stop the idiotic federal government funding. A state wants EV chargers in their state, the state itself can subsidize their own chargers.
I don’t live any of the 17 states suing. The federal government should not be taking my tax money and handing it out in states that want to in effect build refueling stations in their state. The states in question can pay for their own refueling stations.
The president doesn’t have the right to stop funding; Congress does. That’s the root of the problem. A president can sign something into law that authorizes funding, which Biden did. Trump can stop funding if Congress creates a bill that stops funding for the IRA, but there’s a lot there.
Trump tries to make talking points for 3rd graders, but it’s a lot more complex than that (battery plants, roads, bridges, railways, airports, etc.) in it as well. You can’t stop parts of it without a bill going through Congress replacing the IRA. Given that the Republicans have no idea how to create a bipartisan bill, they would have to get every Republican on board, which wouldn’t be easy because a lot of the IRA helps Republican states.
The truth hurts, doesn’t it, downvoters? Just because Trump tries to do something doesn’t make it right or possible. He just likes throwing stuff at a fan and seeing what sticks.
He does….
Last CR had the golden ticket line-power of recision. The administration has the right to cut any funding they want and send it back to Congress. All the doge cuts are legal. That’s why Chucky Schumer is in such hot water. The CR seamed like a win for the Dems in every way except for this one item, the POWER OF RECISION. The president can legally balence the budget tomorrow, refund the EPA, DoE, FBI, any number of agencies he deems bloated and unnecessary.
Brandon also just used executive orders to approve things that Congress never did, which was grossly illegal, but there wasn’t the stomach on capital hill to impeach him.
Recision does have a long legal history with precident, making this almost a guaranteed failure in the appelate and supreme court.
Are you a 3rd grader?
I don’t want to help pay for your EV (tax credit) and similarly I don’t want to help pay for your charger either.
Technically, you don’t pay for the EV tax credit. People who get it pay less in owed taxes. So if I owe $25,000 in federal income taxes, and I have $25,000 taken out in withholdings in my paycheck. I would get $7,500 back. You’re not paying that. It’s coming out of the $25,000 I’ve already paid. If I only owed $3,000 in federal income taxes. I could only get a max of $3,000 back.
And just to be clear, it’s owed federal taxes for the year. If you didn’t have any withholdings taken out during the year, the $7500 would be used first to pay whatever your liability was.
Yes, so I pay more taxes, you pay less. That’s called separate class of citizenship. Technically illegal per the constitution.
Maybe you should be more concerned with tax cuts for the rich than tax cuts for married couples filing jointly making less than $300,000/year.
Trump said not paying taxes made him smart.
Yes, I also believe the income tax is unconstitutional, but that’s another debate for another day.
That’s not true, turn off CNN.
That was how the program started, but you can use the $7500 to reduce the purchase price of your EV at the dealership now. So it is a taxpayer subsidy.
Even if you take the credit at the time of purchase, you still have to owe more in taxes than the tax credit. Otherwise, you will owe money back.
For example, if you had no job (no taxable income) but had cash to pay for a car and took $7500 off the purchase price at the dealership, you would owe $7500 in federal taxes at the end of the year.
You are transferring it to the dealership. The dealership gets the tax credit.
I understand how it works. The tax credit for your EV is lost tax income for the government which has to be made up somewhere else.
Biden cancelled the oil pipeline with an executive so can Trump on the EV charging station. F them.
The difference is EV charging stations are part of the IRA, not just some random I want to build a pipeline. Trump does things via executive order that can be killed by the courts or Congress. Biden beat Trump by passing the IRA. It will not be easy for Trump to stop funding it.
Not a Biden v T-man debate. This really is a legal debate that goes back to Richard Nixon. Nixon used recision to cancel policies he disagreed with. His rational was the agencies weren’t accomplishing the goals of the taxpayers, which is in his constitutional mandate as executive. Hence the legal battle, as the supreme court never ruled on recision, but instead Congress took away that presidential power, a power they just granted back with the CR. So legal precident is on Trump’s side on this one.
He didn’t cancel anything. He denied a permit for a foreign company to build across our border and steal lands from US citizens. The president does have authority when it comes to certain border and international trade issues.
If your state wants EV chargers to be funded with tax dollars, tell your state to increase your taxes and pay for it at the state level.
So, should anyone traveling into a state pay more for the chargers? What about airports? Should we pay tolls for driving on a road outside our home state?
There’s a reason the federal government exists. Otherwise, we might as well have 49 separate countries in North America (excluding Canadian provinces and Hawaii since it’s not part of North America).
Fuel stations manage to get built by private owners all over the place. EV Charging stations can do the same. EV Charge stations can be built near airports by private business owners, or airports can build there own charge stations. Every Airport has a fuel station in very close proximity, not government funded, but they’re there.
Saying we need to pay a toll to use the roads when what we are discussing is the charging infrastructure is ridiculous. Do you pay a toll for filling up with gasoline if it’s outside your home state? Last time i checked filling with fuel cost the same for everyone purchasing fuel…and we stop to fill up at a privately owned and funded fuel station. I’ve never had the cost of fuel go up because i wasn’t from there.
Although now that you bring that up, road infrastructure costs are partly funded by fuel tax. We should probably add a fuel tax to the cost of charging EV’s seeing how they use the roads and are generally heavier than an ICE equivalent so they actually cause more damage.
and we get taxed on that fuel from every state that taxes fuel.
Richer states have been paying for poorer states roads for decades. Richer states get less federal fuel taxes back from the feds than they put in.
Funny
State roads and bridges (and local roads and bridges) get built 100% on the local taxpayers dime, well at least in red states. Commifonia and Naszi York wait till they get a federal grant to start building anything, but here in the Midwest, all infrastructure is built by local tax dollars. Maybe we should send some of our bills to NY so we can get an additional tax break?
This is how things are working in the “United” States.
We don’t need or want EV or the chargers for them. Cancel the whole thing.
While cutting EV incentives, stop funding farmers with taxpayer money. There are many industries that get tax money to support questionable objectives.
Yeah right, growing food has “questionable objectives” ????
State and other government entities subsidize toll roads to get them built when needed, with a “private contractor” to run and take care of them after they are built. With a multi-decade (like 70 years sometimes!) contract. MANY times those operators are not USA entities!
ANY government-funded initiative helps the economy by putting more money in workers’ pockets. Even the “Bridge to No Where” did that! At least EVs are going somewhere and will need public-accessible charging stations to make that happen. The gm energy charging station at a local Pilot truck stop/Wendy’s is busier than I expected it to be. Yep, keeping money in circulation makes for a better economy, even if the government is spending it. Which benefits us ALL.
The power grid does not have the capacity for widespread EV adoption. The increase in charge points needs to be met with increase grid capacity. They already have major brown outs throughout large portions of the US, a drastic increase if charge points without investment in capacity is a wasted effort.
I’m not against EV’s or charge points, they are both important (as long as it’s added to ICE and not mandated to replace it.) We need to look at the entire grid system to ensure capacity is there.
It’d be no different if Texas was demanding funding for increase in oil pipelines when they couldn’t possible produce enough oil to fill existing lines let alone new ones. Have the lines completed in conjunction with upgrading production so they both will work together.
Can*T imagine since no one wants e.v.s. WHY???
These “NUMB SKULLS keep ” “CHARGING AHEAD” pardon da pun. Heee Heee HEEE.
My brain is better than anyBODY*S . Just like Sheldon Cooper. I*m having TOO much fun.
Right I* M being REDICKULUS ????????
Oh the haters and thats all these 16 years has brought us with the pendulum swinging back and forth. Take away all the incentives to Big Oil and REMOVE our military from the middle east and lets see not only the couple hundred billions NOT 5 billion that is saved as well as your gas prices going thru the roof…oh wait you dont think that costs the tax payers!
From a realistic standpoint we spent billions of dollars over 4 years on the Green New Deal and built only a handful charging stations were completed. We really should be interested in who in the 17 states suing the Feds received all the $$’s kicked to them from these so called contractors. These “infrastructure” deals are really just money laundering political operations.
Your nickname should be hands, because EVgo’s site shows 133 Travel Center/Pilot Flying J locations with EV charging as of February 2025. To keep you honest, we can say 123 locations were built in January and February of this year.
Note that this is just one provider using IRA money to build chargers.
IRA is a bill voted by the Congress of the USA. It can be reversed only by the Congress of the USA. If I remember correctly it was a by partisan bill. What is so hard to understand?
Stop dancing around the issue and spreading hate messages against the states / people who are asking for the law to be obeyed.
Those states can go to hell with their stupid inane lawsuits. Billions to create charging stations and nobody seeing the end results, waste of tax payer money.
Yep, plus we don’t have the infrastructure.
Gasoline and diesel tax in my state is 24 cents/gallon, vs. EV’s which pay nothing in road use taxes.
Bicycle ridersalso use public roads and don’t pay any road use taxes or tolls. Jow about walkers who use sidewalks? Gas tax is an extra income for your State. If nobody drove a car, where will they get the money?
Think about those Prius drivers getting 50mpg and barely paying anything vs those big ole compensation trans trucks with bull nuts on them. How fair is that?
(If the truck didn’t come with nuts, then it had gender affirming care performed).
Look, jokes aside, many states have implemented flat fees that are often higher than avg driver pays in gas tax, and typically gas tax only covers 40%~60% of the revenue needed for road infrastructure. The rests come from property taxes, sales taxes, and income taxes which EV owners also pay.
Also, burning a gallon of gas cost society about $5~$10 per gallon in additional healthcare costs due to increased asthma and cancer rates.
Add to that, every EV driver is helping out lower gas prices by decreasing demand for oil. All y’all gas fans should be cheering on the EV movement.
Here’s the EV charging station solution, put a road use tax like the ICE vehicles owners pay per charge. I average $11 road tax at NC’s .83 cents per gallon taxes each week or about $44 a month. In NC EV owners only pay $250.00 for road taxes when they renew their car tags … should be paying the same average amount in road use taxes I and others ICE vehicles owners pay. Most EV owners are very liberal minded, so pay your fair share to use the city/county streets, interstates, and tunnels & bridges. Don’t as me and millions of other in NC to pay for the roads so you can use them for almost scott free !
Ok so NC gas tax is about $0.40 per gallon.
Avg US miles traveled is about 13,500 miles. Avg efficiency is about 25mpg. That’s about 540 gallons of gas or $216 per year.
$250 is more than $216. And if you only travel like 7,000 miles per year you are really getting screwed.
Flat fees are really unfair.
Dear Blue States…..your lies and claims that cutting funding for Energy Hog EV charging stations paid for by Taxpayers is total hogwash. Your usual “judge shopping” may win you an initial victory from some leftist, activist moron wearing black robes but he/she will lose just like you will.
I have to admit the smear Hate campain the oil companies released about 3 years ago really worked well, they targeted mass media. They brain washed all these people and from what I am reading they did a great job. The main problem is the rest of the world is moving to EV its the future. So we can be behind the world or lead the world. I would think people would want USA to be the first and lot living in old tech. Typically the USA leads in tech . Here the oil companies have done a great job making EV look bad and it will blow you up or cant be charged etc like the gas companies said electric edition light would do back in 1860’s/
Agreed its paid by big oil. Other countries are heavy funding EV to help bring the tech forward quicker. We can make it be adopted slower but then we will be behind in tech. The problem is Gas and desiel trucks as they age the pollute far more, oil burning and dumping oil. Trump apparently owned two EV cars an original EV Tesla roadster and now a new EV from musk so he is walking a fine line with his investors.
No more government EV freebees! BOO HOO HOO..GET OUT THE CRYING TOWELS.😥
Wow there are some crazy a-s libturds on here, justifying the green new scam on the world was a lucrative hoax on its citizens, so the politician scumbags can continue to extort money from a false narrative.
Has anyone asked people who supports EV’s, How are they gonna charge their vehicle up when they’re blackouts? We’re you gonna go to get power? I imagine you’ll be asking your neighbor who drives a gas vehicle and a normal brain for a ride and I think it would be funny if they just said sorry you’re on your own.
EV’s are not high-tech. It’s just electric motors, what makes it high tech is the computer systems that’s installed that will give the government and corporations the ability to track every place you drive, how many people you carry. comments you say in your vehicle and the ability to shut your car down by remote. You think this tech is not already installed in GM vehicles? GM Onstar has battled lawsuits for invasion of privacy, allowing to Feds to Cartap your system to record your conversations. This is no different than what they’re doing in China to their people.
In my opinion, EV’s are just a fad like Bell bottom blue jeans. One morning you’re gonna wake up and ask yourself. Why the hell did I buy into this crap.
Enjoy your freedom while it lasts patriots.