The Vermont Agency of Transportation will not move ahead on a planned buildout of the state’s electric vehicle charging network after the Trump administration shut off the federal funding for the program.
VTrans announced in December that it was awarding $9.3 million in federal funding to 11 public fast-charger projects along the state’s busiest highway corridors.
But last week the Federal Highway Administration sent out a memo telling states to halt any work on the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or NEVI, program, which was originally included in former President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The Trump memo, which covers about $5 billion in grants nationwide, told states not to move ahead on any public EV charging projects, saying there would be new guidelines issued in the spring.
“After communication with our Federal Highway Administration division office, the Vermont Agency of Transportation has suspended its NEVI program,” said Patrick Murphy, state policy director at the Vermont Agency of Transportation. “The Agency had already awarded 11 projects for an additional 62 charging ports, but all NEVI-funded work on those is paused until further notice from FHWA.”
After communication with our Federal Highway Administration division office, the Vermont Agency of Transportation has suspended its NEVI program.Patrick Murphy, Vermont Agency of Transportation
Vermont has already been able to use about $700,000 in federal grants for four chargers in Bradford, which opened up in the spring.
The Bradford chargers were among the first in the country to open using the NEVI funding.
Vermont hoped to start work on EV chargers this year along the interstates and major state highways.
Charging stations were planned for Bennington, Berlin, Brattleboro, Manchester, Middlebury, Randolph, Rutland, South Burlington, St. Albans, White River Junction and Wilmington.
Stephen Dotson, Brattleboro sustainability coordinator, said the town wants to be a reliable stopping point for electric vehicle owners.
And he said it’s especially frustrating to lose the federal money after the state had put so much work into identifying the key travel towns, and working out arrangements with private property owners who would support the new stations.
“We’ve been seeing it as a real potential boon to downtown, to business stimulus, and to just creating the kind of economy that we want that’s more regenerative and sustainable,” Dotson said.
The Vermont Agency of Transportation was working with four private companies that were set to start work in the spring.
Berrett Walter, clean technology project manager at Norwich Technologies, said he was holding out hope that the Trump administration would eventually release the funding and get the project back on track.
“These chargers were ideally placed across key travel corridors in Vermont, and would have certainly been a huge benefit to connecting Vermont to other states in New England supporting EV travel,” he said.
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