ANNIE ALLEN
A sweeping proposal by Donald Trump is triggering outrage across the United States, with officials warning it could effectively cripple a $5 billion electric vehicle charging programme before it even gets off the ground.
In a strongly worded rebuke, attorneys general from 20 states, including California, New York, and Michigan, said the administration’s push to enforce a 100% “Buy America” requirement for EV chargers is not just unrealistic, but outright destructive. Their warning: the rule would make the entire programme unusable.
At the heart of the controversy is a dramatic jump from a 55% domestic content requirement to a full 100%, a move critics say ignores the realities of global supply chains. According to the states, not a single fully U.S.-made EV charger currently exists and key components simply aren’t produced domestically.
Their conclusion is blunt: the policy would make compliance “impossible,” stall deployment nationwide, and ultimately sabotage the very infrastructure it claims to support.
The proposal from the U.S. Department of Transportation is seen by critics as part of a broader campaign to derail electric vehicle expansion. Environmental group Sierra Club went further, calling it a “bad-faith” attempt to choke off funding and quietly dismantle the programme.
This is not the first legal clash. Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin ruled that the administration unlawfully froze funds meant to expand EV charging infrastructure, handing a victory to states already battling federal resistance.
The disputed funding stems from a 2021 infrastructure law signed under Joe Biden, which created the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) programme. But critics say the latest proposal is a backdoor strategy to halt that rollout entirely.
Fueling the controversy further, Congress has already diverted $879 million from the EV charging initiative to other projects, raising fresh concerns that the programme is being systematically weakened.
Behind it all lies a stark policy shift: the Trump camp has been aggressively promoting petrol-powered vehicles while rolling back incentives designed to accelerate EV adoption.
For opponents, the message is clear, what was billed as a push for American manufacturing could instead leave billions stranded, chargers unbuilt, and the country’s EV future stuck in neutral.
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