Vermont will receive all of the federal funding for electric vehicle chargers that it was promised before the Trump administration paused the program in January.
Gov. Phil Scott announced Thursday the release of the remaining $15.8 million that the Federal Highway Administration had promised for the installation of charging stations along highways in Vermont.
The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program had previously approved $16.7 million for the state before President Donald Trump issued an executive order freezing the funds until new guidelines were drafted.
Once those new rules were in place, the state edited and resubmitted its application and the remaining funds were disbursed a few weeks later, Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn told Seven Days on Thursday.
“At the end of the day, the money has been released,” Flynn said. “I’m grateful that this has landed the way it did.”
The funds became a flashpoint over the summer because Flynn and Scott chose not to cooperate with a federal lawsuit over the freeze that Attorney General Charity Clark joined in May. Vermont and 16 other states asked a federal court to force federal officials to release the EV charging funds.
A federal judge in June ordered the funds unfrozen for most states, but not Vermont. The judge found that Vermont, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., had failed to prove “irreparable harm” had been caused by the freezing of the funds. Other states provided affidavits from transportation officials attesting to that harm, but Vermont did not.
Flynn argued at the time that it was premature to sue the feds because they hadn’t issued the new rules yet. He also noted that the state is heavily reliant on the Federal Highway Administration for more than a billion dollars in infrastructure funding, and suggested preserving relationships with highway officials made more sense than picking a fight with them.
Clark, by contrast, argued that she wasn’t going to wait for funds to be permanently stripped before taking action to “protect Vermont from federal overreach.”
Environmental groups blasted the Scott administration’s refusal to cooperate with Clark in the lawsuit, arguing that it undermined her legal position and jeopardized the funds.
Flynn declined to answer whether he felt the release of the funds validated the administration’s collaborative approach.
“The attorney general should do whatever he or she thinks they need to do in the best interests of the state they serve,” he said.
Ben Edgerly Walsh, climate and energy program director for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said he stood by his earlier critique of the Scott administration for undermining Clark’s efforts.
“One grant not being illegally canceled doesn’t mean Vermonters should stop standing up to Trump,” he said.
The release of the remaining funds means the state can move forward with 11 fast charging locations providing about 60 charging ports along state and federal highway corridors. The locations will be in Randolph, Wilmington, Rutland, St. Albans, Bennington, Middlebury, White River Junction, Brattleboro, Berlin, Manchester and South Burlington.
Flynn said he hopes the funds are sufficient to complete all 11 sites, but he worries that the Trump administration’s plan to require 100 percent American-made components in the future could upend those efforts. Currently the projects operate under rules that require 55 percent American-made products, he said.
“This is good for Vermont, especially for people who drive EVs and all of us who look to be more accomodating to visitors to Vermont who drive EVs,” Flynn said.