As we highlighted in our December 29, 2021 and January 19, 2021 posts, on November 15, 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) was passed, enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (Pub. L. 117-58), which included the authorization of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program. After collecting public comment, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released its guidance for the NEVI Formula Program on February 10, 2022, representing yet another stake in the ground from the federal government for the development of a national EV charging network and giving both public and private stakeholders a sense of the emerging framework for accessing these catalyzing infrastructure dollars.
Under the NEVI Formula Program in the IIJA, a total of $7.5 billion has been allocated to developing and constructing a national network of 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030. The first $5 billion of the $7.5 billion has been dedicated to funding state programs over the next five years, and each state will be required to submit an EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan (EV Plan) no later than August 1, 2022 to the Joint Office Of Energy and Transportation (the “Joint Office”) describing the state’s intended use of such funds. Thereafter, the Federal Highway Administration will approve eligible plans on a rolling basis by September 30, 2022. In addition, ten percent of the $5 billion will be set aside to provide discretionary grants to fill gaps in the national network. The remaining $2.5 billion will be allocated for a discretionary grant program targeted at bringing EV charging infrastructure to rural and underserved communities. Guidance for this discretionary funding will be released separately by the U.S. DOT later this year.
EV Plans must comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and a recommended template will be available from the Joint Office. In preparing an EV Plan, as described in the NEVI Formula Program Guidance, states should generally adhere to the following framework:
- Introduction: This section should introduce the EV Plan and summarize the topics included in the plan.
- State Agency Coordination: This section should describe how the state’s department of transportation and energy or environmental department have coordinated in the development of the EV Plan.
- Public Engagement: This section should describe how the state has engaged various stakeholder groups in the development of the EV Plan, including the general public, governmental entities, federally recognized Tribes, labor organizations, private sector/industry representatives, representatives of the transportation and freight logistics industries, state public transportation agencies, and urban, rural, and underserved or disadvantaged communities.
- Plan Vision and Goals: This section should lay out how the state will use the funds, broken into a five-year plan, in a way that supports the NEVI Program’s objective of providing a convenient, affordable, reliable, and equitable statewide and national EV network.
- Contracting: In this section, the state should describe any plans to contract with third-party entities for the construction, operation and maintenance of EV charging stations.
- Existing and Future Conditions Analysis: This section should describe any state-specific considerations that may impact the development of EV charging infrastructure, including geographical and environmental conditions, industry and market conditions, public transportation needs and grid capacity.
- EV Charging Infrastructure Deployment: This section should lay out the state’s strategy of infrastructure installation to meet the visions and goals of the EV Plan. This section should also identify the utilities where the EV stations are planned and should include a map of the charging infrastructure as well as usage rates and peak demand.
- Implementation: In this…