President Donald Trump’s crusade to uproot the Biden administration’s big-spending climate programs has left a surprising survivor — the $5 billion effort to install electric car chargers from coast to coast.
Trump mocked then-President Joe Biden’s notoriously slow-to-launch program as a “crazy” waste of money during last year’s campaign, while complaining that electric vehicles “don’t go far” and “cost a fortune.” But eight months after Trump’s agencies attempted to stanch the flow of EV charger money, a POLITICO analysis has found that more than 40 states are in the process of unlocking their shares of the cash, with deep-red Texas and Montana among the first in line. At least 32 say they’ve gotten a yes from Washington.
It’s a rare spot of good news for EVs, whose $7,500-per-vehicle federal tax credit officially sunsetted Wednesday. And so far, at least, the charger money seems to have survived the administration’s purge of clean energy spending during the government shutdown.
The turnaround stems in part from a June federal court decision that ruled Trump’s freeze of the money illegal — an outcome that the administration uncharacteristically chose not to appeal. But it also reflects a growing reality: Millions of EVs are expected to hit the road in the coming years, regardless of Trump’s policies. And their drivers are going to need places to charge.
