The GSA Will Decommission Its Electric Vehicle Chargers, Claiming They Are Not 'Essential to the Mission'.

The General Services Administration (GSA), responsible for managing federally-owned buildings, has decided to proceed with the closure of all its electric vehicle chargers nationwide, arguing that they are not deemed "critical to the mission." Additionally, the agency is considering disposing of the recently acquired electric vehicles. Currently, the GSA operates several hundred electric vehicle chargers throughout the country, with around 8,000 connections available for both government-owned electric vehicles and personal vehicles of federal employees.

Next week, an official internal guide will be announced to instruct federal workers on how to initiate the process of shutting down the chargers. Some regional offices have already received directives to start disconnecting them, according to an email reviewed by various sources. This message indicated that the GSA has worked to align itself with the current administration and has received guidance that all charging stations it owns are not considered critical to its mission. The GSA is planning when to cancel the existing contracts that allow for the operation of these chargers, and once canceled, the stations will be taken offline and disconnected.

In the GSA office in Denver, employees were informed that the chargers in four federally-owned buildings would cease operations next week. This development was initially reported by a local broadcaster. During the Biden administration, the GSA was responsible for implementing the president's plan to eliminate the use of gasoline vehicles in the federal government, replacing them with electric vehicles. It is estimated that the government owns approximately 650,000 vehicles, of which more than half were to be replaced with electric models, which require reliable charging locations.

Former President Biden's landmark climate legislation, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, allocated $975 million to the GSA to upgrade federal buildings with emerging and sustainable technologies. The goal was to achieve a portfolio of federal buildings with net-zero emissions by 2045, which included charging stations for electric vehicles. According to a March 2024 update, the GSA had requested over 58,000 electric vehicles and started installing more than 25,000 charging points, adding to the 8,000 already in use by the government.

An interactive map showing the locations of all GSA chargers was removed in February of this year. The agency will also begin to divest from electric vehicles acquired under the Biden administration, although it is unclear whether these will be sold or simply stored. Additionally, it is unknown whether other federal agencies will make similar decisions regarding their electric vehicles, although many of these agencies tend to use GSA chargers for their electric vehicles.

The previous administration, led by President Donald Trump, had promised to reverse the electric vehicle policies of its predecessor, which it had incorrectly labeled as a "mandate." Since taking office, it halted a $5 billion program intended to install new public electric vehicle chargers and signed an executive order to cancel Biden's guidelines promoting the purchase of new electric vehicles for the federal fleet. This also included signals that it would seek to eliminate the federal tax credit for electric vehicles and other consumer incentives.

Unlike gasoline vehicles, electric vehicles do not generate tailpipe pollution. Burning fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the environment. These emissions have been shown to cause climate change, exacerbating extreme weather events such as wildfires, hurricanes, and floods. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation, which includes the use of personal vehicles, accounts for approximately 28 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

A GSA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The GSA also plans to sell around 500 buildings as part of the Trump administration's efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.