Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark joined a coalition of state attorneys general on Mar. 16 in urging the Federal Highway Administration to withdraw a proposal that would require electric vehicle chargers funded with federal dollars to be made entirely from U.S. components.
The issue is important because states are using federal funds to expand electric vehicle charging networks, and the proposed rule could impact these efforts. The attorneys general say that raising the domestic content requirement from the current 55% to 100% sets an “impossible” standard for manufacturers.
According to a comment letter submitted by the coalition, they believe that adopting this proposal would conflict with existing federal law, exceed the agency’s authority, and ignore investments already made by states and manufacturers under current rules. The letter also says that no chargers currently meet a 100% domestic component requirement, so enforcing such a standard could halt many ongoing projects.
The attorneys general argue that states and manufacturers have already invested significant resources based on gradual increases in domestic content requirements up to the established 55%. They say abruptly changing this standard would undermine those investments and slow down growth in domestic EV charger manufacturing.
Clark was joined by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington as well as Kentucky’s governor in submitting their comments.
