Federal EV Charging Stations Not Being Turned Off (For Now)

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A few weeks ago, I saw a bunch of headlines about the Trump administration pulling the plug on all federal EV charging stations. Scandalous! Idiotic! Totally in character. I figured someone else on the team was going to cover it, so I didn’t look more closely. Then, no one covered it. I thought about it a handful of times since then, but never read a full story on it. Then, last night, I saw a Snopes article about it….

Snopes is in the business of investigating rumors and determining if they’re true or a myth, so I was curious what that meant with regard to this story. The answer is: it’s a little complicated.

First of all, it seems there’s no confirmation yet of any federal EV charging stations getting turned off or removed.

“On Feb. 20, Colorado Public Radio reported that EV chargers at the Denver Federal Center would ‘likely soon be shut down’ after reviewing an internal email from ‘multiple sources.’ According to the report, the email read: ‘As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA-owned charging stations are not mission critical.’” As Snopes rightfully points out, that last statement doesn’t necessarily mean they are shutting off or removing charging stations — the implication could be that they just aren’t going to buy more (not good, of course, but not nearly as bad the other assumption). Unfortunately, that initial reported led to others jumping on the idea and publishing shocking headlines.

There’s apparently been no confirmation from the federal government or White House about this matter. Heck, it could even be that the government is just going to think about this issue and could go ahead and keep buying and installing EV charging stations — though, that seems highly unlikely at this point. Snopes reached out to the GSA about the matter and got the following response:

On January 24, 2025, the GSA Acting Administrator and Deputy Administrator issued a memorandum directing the temporary suspension of all new GSA obligations, including new awards, task and delivery orders, and modifications and options, with limited exceptions.

This temporary suspension includes federal fleet orders of zero emission vehicles. GSA is also working with our agency partners to confirm installed Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), or EVSE related projects still in planning/execution phases, are mission critical in nature and in support of fleet EVs. At this time, no action has been taken regarding EVSE at federal buildings across the country.

So, that’s where things stand. Not good, but not quite as horrible as headlines implied … yet.

Notably, as well, the GSA’s fleet electrification webpage has been removed. You can still view the archive via the Wayback Machine, though. (Side note: the Wayback Machine is amazing, an international treasure.)

If we get more news or an update on what is going on with the US government’s EV charging stations, we’ll let you know. Ironic that the most well known face of the EV revolution has aligned himself with a political party that is so anti-EV and pro-fossil fuel. Will he do anything to reverse these anti-EV policies? Surely not. Ridiculous, but this is the world we live in.