Michigan has joined a multi-state lawsuit over federal funding for building new electric vehicle chargers.
Congress originally approved the money four years ago, during Joe Biden's presidency, in the Infrasturcture Investment and Jobs Act. But President Donald Trump ordered a pause in those payments to states when he took office.
According to the complaint, that left Michigan without roughly $29 million dollars of promised money to finish its plan.
“The Trump Administration's decision to unilaterally cut off these funds is not only unlawful – it jeopardizes Michigan’s EV infrastructure, while threatening our economic growth and environmental progress,” Nessel said in a press release.
The administration went about pausing payments for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program by revoking approvals for plans states had to submit under the program. U.S. Department of Transportation leadership said it was paused for a review.
In a press release, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy defended the pause as legal.
“The Biden-Buttigieg Administration failed miserably to deliver EV chargers despite their promises. Congress gave the Secretary the authority to issue program guidance and ensure money is being spent efficiently, and that’s exactly what we are doing,” the statement from Duffy read.
Duffy’s statement went on to criticize the states suing his agency as taking too long to get the program off the ground to begin with.
That’s an oversimplification, however, according to Ingrid Malmgren, senior policy director with the nonprofit Plug In America, one of the groups also participating in the lawsuit.
Malmgren said there first needed to be a new agency, rules, and plans created before states could spend that money.
“It wasn’t so much that states aren’t interested in using this money and that they were dragging their feet. It was much more that there was a lot of ground work to lay before they could start spending the money and actually putting chargers in the ground,” Malmgren said.
With regards to the usefulness of the program, which the Transportation Department’s statement also questioned, Malmgren said the funding had helped states invest in EV charging in underserved areas.
“Very rural areas, small communities where there wouldn’t be a lot of traffic and it didn’t make a lot of business sense to invest in these chargers, there was still funding available so that this charging network could be very comprehensive and complete,” she said.
The lawsuit was originally filed in May by 16 states and Washington D.C. In late June, most of them succeeded in getting a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s funding pause.
Michigan is among four states to sign onto the suit this month.
According to the updated complaint, Michigan had already bid out contracts to create the first round of charging stations the program would pay for. A second round for 48 more stations is underway.
The state says the pause in funds could keep it from putting in another 65 chargers as part of round three.
