Nebraska lags behind other states in distributing EV charging grant funds

In 2022, the federal government authorized $30.5 million in grants to build electric vehicle charging stations in Nebraska.

Nearly two years later, the application process still hasn’t opened for Nebraska businesses.

In late 2021, federal legislation provided $7.5 billion in funding for electric vehicle infrastructure.

As of May 2024, only eight EV chargers had been built with the grant funding nationwide.

But Ryan McKinnon, a spokesperson for the Charge Ahead Partnership, a national advocacy group for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, said the major holdup has come from the individual states.

Nebraska’s plan for distributing the money was authorized in 2022, but McKinnon said the state is “sitting on the sidelines.”

Nebraska is one of around 15 states that has not yet opened grant applications for business owners to add charging stations.

“Unfortunately, there's a lot of businesses in Nebraska that would like to offer this service, but it's still such a such a new marketplace,” he said. “It's really helpful to have grant money like this, in order to offset some of the startup costs.”

In the recent state legislative session, senators passed a bill allowing private businesses to sell electricity by the kilowatt hour.

McKinnon said that legislation paves the way for Nebraska’s grant applications to open later this summer.