A $7.5 billion Biden-era plan to build a massive network of electric vehicle chargers to address concerns about “range anxiety” has crashed to halt after installing fewer than 400 chargers nationwide.

President Donald Trump‘s administration early this year blocked spending on the project, which aimed to put potentially thousands of chargers at gas stations, rest stops and other sites no more than 50 miles apart. A coalition of Democrat-led states and nonprofits has sued to get the funding restarted but there’s been no final decision yet, and the installations remain on hold.

“Halting the funding sets us all back, and it’s simply wrong,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, said in a Aug. 6 statement announcing the state was joining the ongoing lawsuit. “Electric and hybrid vehicles are no longer the technology of the future. They’re here now, and this technology is only becoming more important to our families and businesses.”

Trevor Hughes

USA TODAY