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Boston Globe

Healey finds $46 million more for EV charging as Trump tries to slash funding

Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The new funding, overseen by the state's Department of Environmental Protection, adds to a Advertisement 'We're building on what works and what has worked for us already,' DEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple said in an interview. 'We need to find ways to make chargers accessible to people who have EVs now or want them in the near future.' Advertisement Meanwhile, the Trump administration has The number of public fast chargers for electric vehicles has nearly tripled in Massachusetts in the past two years to almost 1,500 — and market leader The 216-page assessment from the Advertisement The lack of chargers for trucks along many highways and for people parking on the street 'are the two most important gaps to address,' according to the report from the coordinating council, which includes representatives of most major state agencies, the MBTA, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission. Many Massachusetts businesses that rely on trucks 'You know, if you haven't built it, how will they come?' she said. 'Building out that charging infrastructure takes the wind out of the sails of any argument that we're not ready yet.' The council report also called for existing programs, such as the utilities' offerings, to be more focused on needy areas. Eversource and National Grid, the state's two largest utilities, have already exhausted the funds they budgeted in 2024 for subsidizing public fast chargers. But some chargers built with the utility backing would have been built without subsidies, while areas such as along highways in the western and central parts of the state have been left out, according to Assistant Secretary of Energy Josh Ryor, who chairs the council. 'Let's make sure we're deploying these things quickly while also making sure that we're deploying in the areas that have the greatest value to EV drivers,' Ryor said. That could mean encouraging fast chargers built with utility subsidies to areas within 1.5 miles of a highway or in dense residential neighborhoods, he said. Advertisement The report included projections showing increasing demand from EV charging could require upgrades to the state's electrical grid. In a worst case scenario, if all new EV drivers charged at peak times, more than one-quarter of the state's substations would need to be upgraded by 2035. But incentivizing drivers to charge at off-peak times could reduce the number of substation upgrades to as few as 1 out of every 16. The current forecast for 10,500 fast chargers in 2035 should help set priorities, but the exact number needed a decade from now could change, Ryor said. The council is required to report on the state's EV charging infrastructure every two years. 'One of the beauties of having this assessment every two years is we're able to incorporate the best information that we have,' he said. 'There's no one North Star for the number of chargers that we need.' Aaron Pressman can be reached at