Evers sues Trump administration over EV charging funding cuts

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The Evers administration is suing the U.S. Department of Administration as more than $60 million in electric vehicle infrastructure funding is held up in Washington, D.C.

Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday announced Wisconsin will join a lawsuit against the President Donald Trump administration for retroactively blocking roughly $62.65 million in National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program funding the state expected to receive for multiple projects.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to stop payments under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, both signed by former president Joe Biden. IRA grants and loans were stopped for a 90-day review to ensure they followed the Trump administration’s energy policy.

The IIJA, also called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, was signed in 2021 by Biden and included $7.5 billion to build out electric vehicle charging stations across the country.

Two programs that are affected are NEVI and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program. There are 15 approved electric vehicle charger projects across Wisconsin, but Evers’ office said that the U.S. Department of Transportation and Sean Duffy, the current U.S. secretary of transportation, pulled funding for states after the fact.

Wisconsin joined 16 other states, including New York, California, Minnesota and Colorado in the lawsuit filed against U.S. DOT and Duffy.

“Improving Wisconsin’s roads, bridges and infrastructure has been a top priority for me and my administration from the get-go, which is why I’ve made clear to the Trump administration and Secretary Sean Duffy for months that I would not tolerate any delays in investments to help support our state’s infrastructure,” Evers said in a statement. “But now, the Trump administration and Secretary Duffy are obstructing over $60 million to support infrastructure projects, and we’re being forced to put projects across Wisconsin on hold – that’s unacceptable. So, we’re taking them to court,” he added.

The lawsuit seeks to “stop obstructing infrastructure investments that Wisconsin and other states were expecting to receive and to immediately release the funding,” the governor’s office said. It also argues that the administration’s attempt to block funding, already approved by Congress, violates constitutional checks and balances.

In March, Evers sent a letter to Duffy and USDOT over federal cuts to local transportation projects and urged the secretary to end any funding delays. Following correspondence from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, transportation departments across the U.S. reported infrastructure funding and permits were slowing down.

In 2024, Evers signed legislation to allow the Wisconsin Department of Administration to receive and administer over $78 million in NEVI investments, the governor’s office said. In May 2024, the governor and WisDOT announced $23 million would be sent to 53 projects for electric vehicle infrastructure across Wisconsin, officials added.

WisDOT administers NEVI funds through the Wisconsin Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, a competitive grant program for installation, operation and maintenance of NEVI-compliant electric vehicle charging stations throughout the state, officials said. The agency has an online dashboard for charging station projects, which are built 1 mile from highway intersections or interstate exits along the state’s “Alternative Fuel Corridors,” officials added.

The agency’s goal is to reach all corners of the state and support more than 29,000 registered electric vehicles, officials noted.