The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released its implementation guidance for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (NEVI), a $5 billion investment and new program in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The guidance will help states build out an electric vehicle (EV) charging network along the interstate highway system, a critical contribution to the Biden administration’s goal of installing 500,000 public EV chargers nationwide by 2030. The DOT memorandum on the NEVI program directs states to ensure that the formula funds are deployed efficiently and equitably, and include robust and meaningful engagement with labor organizations and disadvantaged communities at every stage—including development of state EV charging plans, funding deployment and implementation, and program evaluation and reporting. It also urges states to consider how their deployment plans can support American manufacturing workers who are building EV charging infrastructure and components through the installation of domestically manufactured and Buy America-compliant EV chargers. 

After the announcement of the guidance, the BlueGreen Alliance released the following statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh: “This is a big deal. The new NEVI program makes exactly the kind of investments that prove we can have both good jobs and a clean environment when we center and uplift the workers who make the transition to cleaner transportation possible, and the communities most impacted by climate change and the poor transportation policies of the past. The BIL is already working to deliver for workers and communities around the country. The guidance’s emphasis on domestically manufactured EV chargers, protection of and investment in the incumbent workforce, and equitable planning processes will help ensure we build up a strong domestic supply chain for EV charging infrastructure, that the jobs created by this effort will be good, union jobs, and that the benefits of the NEVI program—and America’s broader transition to a clean transportation system—accrue to the communities where they are needed the most. 

“EVs are here and they are the future—and EVs and the infrastructure needed for them should be built here in America. The deployment of these funds will lay the foundation for a national public EV charging network that is planned, designed, and implemented equitably.”