Trump administration pledges to keep, streamline much-maligned EV charger program
The U.S. Department of Transportation said it would alter requirements in the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, or NEVI, to provide more flexibility to states and 'slash red tape' left by the previous administration.
'The Biden-Buttigieg Administration failed to deliver EV chargers despite their promises. Our revised NEVI guidance slashes red tape and makes it easier for states to efficiently build out this infrastructure,' said Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy, referring to his predecessor, Pete Buttigieg. 'While I don't agree with subsidizing green energy, we will respect Congress' will and make sure this program uses federal resources efficiently.'
The move is a surprising reversal following months of work by President Donald Trump and his allies to roll back pro-EV initiatives in the federal government. Now, instead of nixing NEVI, the Trump administration has pledged to improve a program that became a bipartisan symbol of sluggish bureaucracy under the Biden administration.
'If Congress is requiring the federal government to support charging stations, let's cut the waste and do it right,' Duffy added.
NEVI was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by Democratic President Joe Biden in November 2021. It offered an infusion of $5 billion to states to build out their charger networks as electric vehicles become more common, with Michigan getting $110 million through fiscal year 2026. The law also included a separate $2.5 billion grant program issued on a discretionary basis to cities, rural areas and major transportation corridors.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike criticized the program after it produced only a handful of completed, functional charger stations within the first three years of the program. 'That's pathetic,' U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said in a May 2024 hearing. 'That is a vast administrative failure.'
A recent update showed progress. The federal programs yielded 384 charging ports by April 2025, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. But even as projects and investments started to yield more results, the Trump administration fought for months to put - and keep - the program on hold.
Trump, in an executive order signed the day he returned to office, called out NEVI in a section on 'Terminating the Green New Deal.' His Department of Transportation then suspended the program in February, though the agency noted a goal of providing updated guidance later in the year.
NEVI had about $2.7 billion remaining in unobligated funds at the time, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
The GAO, a nonpartisan agency within Congress, issued an opinion in May finding that the Trump administration was breaking the law by withholding charger funds. The opinion was not binding, but it served as an important signal that federal courts might reach a similar conclusion and force the DOT to resume the program, according to the nonpartisan Eno Center for Transportation.
The White House's Office of Management and Budget then instructed the DOT to disregard the opinion and continue its suspension of the NEVI program. But the Trump administration now appears to be ending its NEVI fight, instead vowing to make it easier for states to address a lag in public charging infrastructure that has slowed EV adoption in the United States.
The Transportation Department said Monday it would minimize onerous requirements and simplify the federal approval process for state plans. For example, the new guidance removes an order for states to ensure 'the deployment, installation, operation, and use of EV charging infrastructure achieves equitable and fair distribution of benefits and services.'
The new guidance also removes a requirement for states to explain how their NEVI implementation would encourage participation from small businesses, including minority-owned and women-owned small businesses. The guidance also minimizes requirements for states to consider 'electric grid integration and renewable energy.'
States will be required to submit new plans to the Department of Transportation within 30 days.
Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
a minute ago
- Boston Globe
Draft of major MAHA report calls for more education, less regulation — and offers few policies
While the document, titled 'Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy,' retreads key MAHA ground like the need to cut artificial food dyes and encourage physical activity, it also offers a more expansive view of where Kennedy plans to steer his agency. Details of the report, which was delivered to the White House on Tuesday but not made public, were first published by The New York Times. They have yet to be authenticated by White House officials. Childhood vaccine schedule reform is on the agenda, though the report offers no details on how Kennedy will change the list of recommended childhood vaccines, if at all. He has for years cast suspicion on vaccines, often citing flawed research, and promoted the idea that early shots are harming children. The report similarly calls for 'addressing vaccine injuries.' Advertisement 'Together, this strategy will translate the work of the MAHA movement to policies that make a transformative and lasting impact for Americans and end the childhood chronic disease crisis,' says a draft document, dated Aug. 11 and published by Politico. Advertisement The strategy notably avoids mention of the 'This report has one overriding implied message: More research needed,' Marion Nestle, a leading nutrition researcher and professor emeritus at New York University, said via email. But, she said, 'we already know the problems. It's way past time to start addressing them.' Perhaps the most forceful regulatory proposals in the report have to do with marketing. One recommends the Health and Human Services Department work with other federal agencies to enforce direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, including among social media influencers and telehealth companies. The move falls short of the full ban Kennedy previously talked about. A separate recommendation would create new industry guidelines to 'limit the direct marketing of certain unhealthy foods to children,' though it seems those rules would still be voluntary. (Some of the largest food and beverage companies currently self-regulate under a 'Though still light on specifics, these draft recommendations are a bit of a mixed bag,' said Andrew Binovi, director of government affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Advertisement Among the ideas is Nestle says the first Trump administration tried to implement a similar plan with pre-packed food boxes distributed through food banks and other organizations, which was 'a disaster for small farmers initially recruited to do these labor intensive and perishable boxes. It makes much more sense to make sure people have enough money to buy food.' Trump's recent tax cut bill The report also suggests the government should incentivize more breastfeeding, either through the WIC program or other routes. There is little mention of ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, which are expected to be a focus of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, due later this year. HHS is also crafting a definition of what constitutes a UPF.'It appears that big food lobbyists have been busy and successful,' said Jerold Mande, CEO of the nutrition nonprofit Nourish Science, who previously held senior policymaking roles at the FDA and USDA under the George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations. 'Who expected the MAHA report to do more to get whole milk in schools than to get UPF out?'The report also says that the USDA will 'prioritize precision nutrition research,' a line of research that aims to provide people with more personalized recommendations by taking into account their body's individual needs and responses to certain foods. Former NIH nutrition researcher Kevin Hall Advertisement The draft report is 'the most ambitious federal plan yet to confront childhood chronic disease,' said Marty Irby, president and CEO at Capitol South and Competitive Markets Action, who previously lobbied for ranchers and farmers. 'Still, there are gaps: the USDA school lunch program continues to force dairy on many children — particularly kids of color — who are lactose intolerant, with little to no alternatives, and the plan offers little to promote local, farm-to-table food in schools.' Aviva Musicus, science director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, criticized the report as embodying 'the idiosyncratic beliefs' of one person, Kennedy. 'He might be right about food dyes, but the report's recommendations to alter our vaccine framework, restructure government agencies, and promote meat and whole milk are going to promote disease, not health,' Musicus said. While the draft report is not a budget document, it is unclear how much funding would be needed for the various efforts or where it would come from. Already, Congress Advertisement Many of the proposals involve Medicaid, WIC, Instead of regulation, the administration plans to run public awareness and education campaigns aimed at adolescents about physical fitness, screen time, substance use, vaping and 'root cause issues that impact adult infertility.' Another initiative aims to train school and library workers on how to handle overdoses, and expand their access to the overdose-reversal medication Narcan, per the report. States will be encouraged to re-adopt the Presidential Fitness Test, which grades students on their ability to do things such as complete a mile run. HHS will also establish an 'infertility training center,' though the report offers limited details on precisely what services would be offered at such a facility. (Kennedy allies have been pushing for widespread use of what's called Medical schools, which have already been pushed by the administration to Advertisement Elsewhere in the department, National Institutes of Health officials plan to launch two new offices, one focused on developing alternatives to animal testing, such as organ-on-a-chip technologies, and another to organize chronic disease research. NIH will also start a new task force on children's health, and create a database of researchers' funding sources, similar to the OpenPayments system run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, per the draft report. The commission's recommendations, while largely centered at Kennedy's HHS, also affect the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency — though not as severely as some in the food and agriculture industries feared. Unlike While calling for more 'innovative growing solutions,' the report also says the government ought to 'ensure that the public has awareness and confidence in EPA's robust pesticide review procedures.' When it comes to air quality — a 'The commission has a historic opportunity to protect America's kids, but only if it resists corporate influence and turns bold ideas into real, accountable action,' Irby told STAT. Here are other highlights from the document: Mental health: More prior authorization Pediatric mental health remains a key focus for Kennedy and his MAHA allies. In February, a White House executive order called mood stabilizers and antipsychotic drugs a ' The draft echoes this language, highlighting the overmedicalization of children as a key challenge to overcome and calling for HHS to form a working group that will evaluate prescription patterns for SSRIs, antipsychotics, stimulants, and other drugs that children take. They also ask the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to work with states to increase prior authorization requirements and tighten prescribing safeguards particularly for ADHD. The draft says the Veterans Administration will provide NIH with de-identifiable data on ADHD, diabetes, and pharmaceutical usage among spouses, dependents and survivors of veterans under 18. It's true that kids can be overmedicalized, said Jennifer Mathis, deputy director for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. But it was 'disheartening, however, that the leaked draft strategy makes no mention of well-established services that are critical for children with significant mental health needs, such as intensive care coordination, intensive behavior support, and mobile crisis services,' Mathis said. Rates of anxiety, depression and ADHD in the U.S. are increasing, but the scientific explanation for their rise is Although the scientific literature on screen use offers Notably absent from the report, however, was the startling rise of youth suicide over the last two decades. Suicide is one of the leading causes of deaths in this demographic and is particularly pronounced among Black teenagers. One in five high school students Fluoride: New scrutiny of water standards In discussing the importance of water quality, the document focuses on one element: fluoride. The document does not directly name other contaminants, like PFAS or lead. The report states that the CDC and USDA will 'educate Americans on the appropriate levels of fluoride, clarify the role of EPA in drinking water standards for fluoride under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and increase awareness of the ability to obtain fluoride topically through toothpaste,' Experts largely agree that fluoridation at the level currently recommended by the CDC is safe, despite some growing concern that higher levels of fluoride intake could be The draft of the report also states the FDA will evaluate liquid drops and tablets. This process has already begun, with a Electromagnetic radiation: Studies ahead The report also says HHS plans to study electromagnetic radiation and health research 'to identify gaps in knowledge, including on new technologies to ensure safety and efficacy.' The report doesn't explain what sources of electromagnetic radiation its authors consider possible cause for concern. But Kennedy has claimed — contrary to scientific consensus — on The But while there's not evidence of a link between cell phones and cancer, it's true that the devices have changed dramatically since the advent of smartphones and that kids' usage has skyrocketed, said Emanuela Taioli, director of the Institute for Translational Epidemiology at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine, via email. 'Perhaps a new study on kids specifically is worth doing.' Daniel Payne and Chelsea Cirruzzo contributed reporting. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 or chat . For TTY users: Use your preferred relay service or dial 711 then 988.
Boston Globe
a minute ago
- Boston Globe
New R.I. Air National Guard headquarters in Quonset ‘improves our readiness'
Plans to finally replace the complex moved forward after US Senator Jack Reed Advertisement 'We stepped up from an 84-year-old building, which was showing a little wear and tear, to the most modern facility that we have,' Reed said at a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Quonset Air National Guard Base in North Kingstown. Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 'This building is going to improve professionalism,' the Democratic senator added. 'It's going to inspire, I think, the air men and air women that work here, because they're working in the best facilities.' The new, 43,000-square-foot headquarters – with offices, medical facilities, and a dining and multi-purpose area – will serve as central command for 143d Airlift Wing, and as an emergency operations center for Rhode Island in the event of a natural disaster or other crisis, according to officials. The Rhode Island Air National Guard employs approximately 1,100 military and civilian personnel, including pilots, maintenance, operation, and support personnel, officials said. Advertisement Major General Andrew J. Chevalier, 'In an ever-increasing, challenging, strategic environment with an increasing role of the National Guard in both our state and federal missions, it is imperative that we take a long look into the future to ensure that we are ready and equipped to deploy and win when called,' Chevalier said. 'This building is an investment to help us do that.' From left, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, US Senator Jack Reed, Rhode Island Governor Dan McGee, and Colonel Adam Wiggins, commander of the 143rd Airlift Wing, listen to guest speakers during a ribbon cutting ceremony, Friday. MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE Dating back to 1915, the 143d Airlift Wing operates a fleet of C-130J Super Hercules, aircraft that is 'capable of operating from rough, dirt strips and is the prime transport for air dropping troops and equipment into hostile areas,' according to its During the Global War on Terror, 143d Airlift Wing has provided 'a bridge to and from' combat theaters, the website states. US Representative Seth Magaziner touted on Friday how the unit was 'famously one of the most deployed to Afghanistan in the entire country.' The 143d is also called upon for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid missions across the United States and around the world, he said. 'If you all keep showing up for our country and doing your job, we will keep showing up for you,' Magaziner, a Democrat, told service members. Next week, Magaziner plans to file a bill with US Representative Trent Kelly, a Mississippi Republican, that, if approved, will fix 'a glitch' in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program for members of the National Guard and US Army Reserve, he said. Advertisement Currently, those members can only count time spent on active duty toward qualifying for loan forgiveness – not time spent on temporary assignments and completing other duties, including training, according to Magaziner. The bill, which came from a suggestion by a veteran of the Rhode Island National Guard, would change that, Magaziner said. 'That is one small example of a way that we can take your feedback to make sure that you are given what you are owed and what you have earned,' he told service members on Friday. Members of the Rhode Island 143rd Airlift Wing listen to guest speakers during a ribbon cutting ceremony, Friday, celebrating the opening of a new, $46 million facility that will serve as a state-of-the-art command center at the Quonset Air National Guard Base. MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE Christopher Gavin can be reached at
UPI
a minute ago
- UPI
Former Delaware Gov. Michael Castle dies at 86
1 of 3 | Former Congressman and Gov. Michael N. Castle, R-Del., has died at the age of 86, the politician's family confirmed in a post online. File Photo (2009) by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Former congressman and Gov. Michael N. Castle, R-Del., has died at the age of 86, the politician's family confirmed in a post online. The moderate Republican served two terms as governor between 1985 and 1992 before being elected to Congress in 1993. "Congressman Mike Castle was a founding member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a leading organization for centrist Republicans, and worked in a bipartisan manner to help move people from welfare to work, support fiscally responsible government, improve public education, and protect the community," his family said in the statement. "He served on the House Committee on Financial Services, Committee on Education and Workforce and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence." Castle, who is survived by his wife of over 33 years, Jane DiSabatino, ultimately became the longest-serving member of Congress from Delaware in the state's history. He also served as the lieutenant governor of Delaware from 1981 to 1985 prior to being elected governor, and in the state legislature before that. "Over the arc of the more than 40 years that I knew him - I met him when I was 16 - he repeatedly provided his knowledge and expertise to help me along my own way," Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a statement, calling Castle an "incredible man." "When we eventually ran against each other, I did my absolute best to run a respectful, positive, policy-based campaign. As we campaigned against each other, I only liked him more." Castle was known as a backer of educational and environmental reforms. As a member of Congress, Castle was a major proponent of the 2001 "No Child Left Behind," legislation that was an effort to improve test scores among U.S. school children. "Governor Castle understood there is no greater legacy we leave to future generations than the quality of our environment. As Governor, his administration's Environmental Legacy program to protect and preserve forests, wetlands, and beaches won recognition for its foresight and impact," his family said in the statement. In addition to DiSabatino, who he married in 1992, Castle is survived by his "many nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews." Visitation will take place August 21 at a funeral home in Wilmington, Del. Notable deaths of 2025 Astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission to the moon, died August 8, 2025, in Illinois, his family announced. He was 97. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
