Within hours of his inauguration, President Donald Trump released an executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” announcing rollbacks of dozens of federal environmental and energy programs.
One section broadly halts the dispersal of unspent funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a wide-reaching pot of money for transportation infrastructure, energy and more.
The infrastructure law allocated $5 billion toward the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (NEVI.) Oklahoma was to receive $66 million in total over the program’s five years to install charging infrastructure along the state’s corridors with a focus on rural and underserved areas.
Now, the fate of the state’s promised charging station money is unclear.
On Jan 31, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation said it spent about $1.2 million of the funds to date. The department is “working with our federal partners to determine the impact of the president’s executive order on our program,” said T.J. Gerlach, public information officer.
Rolling back the program could be legally difficult, according to environmental law and advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, because of its bipartisan support.
“These programs are legally entrenched, widely supported, and designed to withstand political turbulence,” the organization wrote in a blog post.
As of September, the U.S. Department of Energy said Oklahoma has 22,843 registered electric vehicles.
The executive order is separate from the temporary freeze of federal grants that caused widespread confusion nationwide on Jan. 27, which was rescinded two days later.
According to the order, agencies must submit reports to the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the president for economic policy’s office with “recommendations to enhance their alignment with the policy.”
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