The Wyoming Department of Transportation announced that its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program plan has been approved by the Federal Highway Administration.
The approval certifies that the state’s Alternative Fuel Corridors are fully built out and that NEVI funding can be spent on non-interstate highways. With the private sector taking the lead on the NEVI project, Wyoming is the third state to fully achieve build-out status. The achievement is even more telling when considering no NEVI-funded EV chargers have been installed in the state to date.
“WYDOT’s strategic, cautious approach to the federal program has allowed the free market to take care of installing stations where it made good business sense,” WYDOT Director Darin Westby said. “We have no interest in using these federal funds in a way that is competing with the private sector, and WYDOT felt existing charging stations are appropriately spaced to meet current EV ranges.”
NEVI guidance requires the FHWA to certify the bull build-out of the AFCs in a state before NEVI funding can be spent on other highways. Wyoming has at least 39 stations along Interstates 25, 80 and 90, all of which are privately owned and were built independent of federal funding.
With tourism being the state’s second largest industry, WYDOT’s strategy is now focused on using NEVI funding as a grant for private industry to continue its work building EV charging stations along non-interstate highways, especially those used by drivers to get to tourist destinations like Devil’s Tower National Monument, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park.