BOISE, ID – After temporarily suspending states’ work on the program, the federal government has given the green light to Idaho’s plan to develop a connected network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Last month, the Federal Highway Administration approved Idaho’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or NEVI, plans, Idaho Transportation Department Communication Manager John Tomlinson said.
The NEVI program was created to develop plans for a network of connected electric vehicle charging stations located every 50 miles along designated interstates and highways, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.
For several years a working group in Idaho had been developing plans, gathering public feedback and identifying potential sites for electric vehicle charging stations when the federal government halted all work on the projects and suspended approving state plans, the Sun previously reported. On Feb. 6, less than three weeks after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Federal Highway Administration officials sent state transportation directors letters saying they were immediately suspending approving state plans and rescinding past guidance for the NEVI program.
State officials were told to await further federal guidance, which then arrived in August.
On Sept. 10, Idaho Transportation Department Director Scott Stokes resubmitted Idaho’s plans and requested the state’s share of funding for fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2026, the Sun previously reported.
Stokes included a siting, feasibility and access study from 2024 when he resubmitted Idaho’s plans and pointed out the parts of Idaho’s plans that addressed the latest federal government guidance from August. But Stokes did not make any big changes to Idaho’s plans, which were updated in 2023 and 2024.
Last month, the feds approved Idaho’s plans, which gives Idaho the authority to get back to work on the state’s NEVI project, Tomlinson said.
“Now that the NEVI Plan has been approved by the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA), we will gather as an interagency working group again in the near future to discuss what delivering the program looks like in Idaho,” Tomlinson wrote in an email to the Idaho Capital Sun. “This will be with (the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Idaho Governor’s Office of Energy and Mineral Resources and Idaho Transportation Department).”
Prior to being ordered to suspend work on the program, Idaho’s working group had begun narrowing down the list of potential locations for electric vehicle charging stations, including identifying potential sites along highway corridors near Pocatello, Bliss and Lewiston.
Funding for the NEVI program was authorized under the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act that former President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.
