President Donald Trump’s administration has finally pulled the plug and halted the federal government’s ongoing efforts to adopt electric vehicles. A series of internal memos obtained by Colorado Public Radio and NPR have revealed that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has suspended electric vehicle orders temporarily, ordered the closure of some EV charging stations, and halted the installation of new electric vehicle charging stations.
A March 3 memo regarding electric vehicle chargers that was signed by recently appointed GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters notes that all existing EV chargers that aren’t ‘mission-critical’ should be shut down. As a Trump appointee, Commissioner Peters is following the headline position the Trump administration has taken against many of the previous administration’s policy decisions.
President Trump criticized the Biden administration’s focus on green energy and electric cars for years and vowed to roll back Biden’s renewable energy-related decisions if he was re-elected. True to his word, Trump has spent the past couple of months turning back dozens of the previous administration’s policy decisions.
Despite being endorsed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, President Trump targeted electric cars right out of the gate. Southwest Energy Efficiency Project’s transportation program director Travis Madden says the decision to de-prioritize electric cars is very shortsighted. Many other environmental groups are displeased with the Trump administration as it continues to move away from electric cars.
The March 3 memo also stopped the installation of new EV chargers but allowed agencies to request exceptions for GSA charges that were mission-critical. Agencies would also have to follow a similar process if they wanted to keep using already existing GSA-owned electric vehicle chargers. However, the memo did not define what ‘mission critical’ means.
As a result, it is still hard to predict the number of federal facilities and EV chargers that will be affected by the new policy. A report from Colorado Public Radio says that the General Services Administration has already ordered the Denver Federal Center to shut down the electric vehicle chargers on the premises. The agency may give similar instructions to other federal campuses in the next few months.
The Biden administration invested heavily in electric vehicles and public charging infrastructure to help the U.S. reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and cut its greenhouse gas emissions. Through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the administration provided billions of dollars to develop a nationwide network of public EV chargers, build up robust domestic supply chains, and challenge China’s electric vehicle dominance.
It remains to be seen to what extent the policy decisions by the Trump administration on EVs impact the strategic plans of industry players like SolarBank Corp. (NASDAQ: SUUN) (CSE: SUNN) that have interests in making batteries for electric vehicles, among other use-cases.
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