In a turning point for electric vehicle infrastructure, a federal judge has ruled in favor of 20 states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) over withheld funding. According to the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, the DOT was found to have illegally stopped the disbursement of approximately $1 billion for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, a sum included in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to boost the deployment of EV charging stations across the nation.
This decision follows a contentious move where, at the beginning of his administration, President Trump signed an executive order effectively freezing the release of NEVI funds, an action that triggered the plaintiff states to file a lawsuit. "Expanding access to charging stations gives Marylanders the confidence to drive the electric vehicles essential to meeting our climate goals," Attorney General Anthony G. Brown said, emphasizing the importance of secured funding for environmental protection. The lawsuit culminated in a preliminary injunction granted last June, which included a considerable $34.5 million earmarked for Maryland.
U.S. District Court Judge Tana Lin, who issued the final ruling, deemed the DOT and the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) actions as "arbitrary and capricious" and beyond the bounds of the law. She has prohibited the DOT and FHWA from further suspensions or revocations of the approved EV infrastructure plans of the plaintiff states and from holding back their NEVI Formula Program funds, barring reasons explicitly detailed by Congress in the IIJA.
The coalition, in addition to Maryland's Attorney General Brown, includes attorneys general from a swath of states across the country, from Arizona to Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Several environmental and clean energy groups also joined the fray as plaintiff-intervenors, including heavyweights like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
