Ruling: Trump administration must keep its hands off NEVI funding

As Reuters reports, the ruling permanently prohibits the US Department of Transportation from withholding funds from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) programme or revoking previously approved state implementation plans. This decision has been welcomed not only by the plaintiff states but also by environmental organisations, which see the court’s ruling as a guarantee that states can continue building state-funded charging infrastructure without risking further top-down suspensions.

To recap: the Biden administration launched the NEVI programme in 2023 and allocated five billion dollars to states to support the large-scale expansion of charging infrastructure across the USA. Under the NEVI programme, states were required to submit annual plans to the Federal Highway Administration, detailing how they intended to use the funds. However, in February 2025—shortly after Donald Trump took office—the administration abruptly revoked the guidelines underpinning the NEVI programme. Officially, the government froze the programme to review it, ensuring it aligned with the administration’s priorities.

Resistance quickly emerged: a coalition of states filed a lawsuit in May 2025. By June, a court ruled that these states were likely to succeed and issued a preliminary injunction against the government’s funding freeze. Unsurprisingly, the US government’s actions were immediately criticised in February, with doubts raised over their legal validity. California, in particular, resisted the withholding of funds: “California will not back down, not from Big Oil, and not from federal overreach,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in May.

Initially, however, the preliminary ruling last summer released funds for only 14 states, leaving other plaintiffs without relief. The legal dispute thus continued. In August 2025, the administration released the funds but introduced new guidelines with relaxed requirements, particularly regarding consumer and environmental protections, to make the expansion of charging infrastructure ‘less bureaucratic.’ Since then, some of the US states have once again been able to access NEVI funding. According to media reports, however, a large share of the funds has remained unavailable.

On Friday, a US federal judge in Seattle ruled that the Trump administration’s suspension of funding was unlawful. Tana Lin, a judge appointed by former President Joe Biden, stated, according to Reuters, that the Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration was ‘withholding funds’ from the NEVI programme without adhering to the legal requirements of administrative law. Even a temporary suspension—such as the one that occurred—was deemed unlawful. The ruling applies nationwide and, according to the successful plaintiffs, will allow long-delayed charging infrastructure projects to proceed.

“We’re glad to see the Court put an end to the chaos and uncertainty created by the Trump administration’s unlawful actions,” commented Joe Halso, senior attorney for the Sierra Club, who represented the plaintiffs in a hearing on 13 January. “The administration illegally froze the NEVI program and halted critical EV charging projects for months, delaying and denying our members’ access to infrastructure Congress had already funded. Our goal all along has been simple: restore NEVI and ensure states can build the nationwide charging network Congress envisioned. Today’s decision delivers that result.”

According to Reuters, the Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, the US Senate is expected to debate a further bill this week, which seeks to reallocate 879 million US dollars originally earmarked for charging network expansion. The US House of Representatives has already approved the measure.

reuters.com, fingfx.thomsonreuters.com (PDF), cleantechnica.com