Detroit, MI
Detroit gets millions from feds to install ‘high-speed’ EV chargers
Tim Slusser says the city of Detroit has an end goal for its electric vehicle charging infrastructure plans.
“In the future, you won’t be any farther than 3 to 5 miles from a charging station no matter where you are in the city of Detroit,” Slusser, the city’s chief of mobility innovation, told the Free Press on Tuesday.
A new federal grant award to the city and region should help.
On Friday, the city of Detroit and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments were awarded almost $15.2 million to boost EV charging in the region. This grant, along with a similar $23.4 million grant last year, are expected to help the city install more than 100 “high-speed” EV charging stations across 40 locations, according to the announcement Tuesday.
The latest grant to Detroit and the region were part of a wider announcement from the Federal Highway Administration for 49 projects nationwide funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Currently, Detroit has around 300 public and private charging stations, close to 30 of which are DC fast charging, which are “as close to the gas station experience as you can get,” Slusser said, noting that’s simply not enough.
Those locations include places like recreation centers and even Meijer stores, Slusser said.
“We really wanted to address some remaining gaps in our EV infrastructure strategy as well as to tie those assets into some other transportation modalities,” Slusser said, referencing locations where drivers can park and access scooters, bike share or other transit options.
Outside the city, SMART bus park and ride and carpool lots will be areas of focus. The goal is to have higher speed chargers along major corridors and places where shorter charging times are important. Slower speed, Level 2 chargers that deliver approximately 25 miles of range per hour plugged in, would be located in areas where people might plan to leave their vehicle while they grab a bite to eat or see a show.
The intent is also to give a wide range of people access to EV charging, including those living in multifamily units, and to reduce vehicle emissions in the city.
Mayor Mike Duggan, in a news release, said “electric vehicles are the future of the auto industry and Detroit is going to support that shift by making sure we have a network of safe, convenient and easy-to-find high-speed charging stations for people to use.”
Slusser said specific locations should be available soon. The release noted that installation of the first stations are expected to take place in the spring, with all chargers installed over the next few years. The effort is being marketed as the Detroit Charge Ahead: Clean Commute Program.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was wrong to determine Michigan met federal health and environmental standards for ozone pollution or smog in the Detroit area in 2023, a federal appeals court judge has ruled.
U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Helene White on Dec. 5 issued a split decision in a case about how environmental regulators measured Detroit air quality in 2022, when wildfire smoke drifted over Detroit and affected the air quality monitor readings for a few days in June.
Michigan considered those days “exceptional events” because of the wildfire smoke and didn’t include the high ozone pollution readings in its calculation to the EPA.
With those days tossed, the state was able to argue in 2023 that Michigan met federal air quality standards for ground-level ozone pollution. The seven-county Metro Detroit region had previously been out of compliance with the ozone standards.
The Sierra Club sued, arguing the wildfire smoke did not meaningfully change ozone readings and that the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy failed to analyze how local pollution sources contributed to the ozone levels on those days. The environmental advocacy group also challenged the EPA’s finding that the region met federal standards for ozone pollution.
White determined the exceptional events designation was appropriate, siding against the Sierra Club in deciding the EPA and EGLE correctly analyzed the smoke’s impact on ozone readings in June 2022.
She sided against EPA in deciding the EPA was wrong to put Michigan back into attainment for ground-level ozone without Michigan adopting control measures that would cut volatile organic compounds, which contribute to ozone pollution.
EPA determined the Detroit area was out of attainment for ground-level ozone on April 13, 2022. Michigan regulators did not impose control technologies for ozone-causing pollutants by the deadline in early 2023. Instead, they asked EPA to redesignate the area as in attainment with the air quality rules.
Michigan was obligated to implement control technologies even though it had submitted a redesignation request, White said in her order. Control technologies include efforts to reduce volatile organic compounds from being released from manufacturing plants and industrial sources, according to EPA documents.
Sierra Club member and Detroit environmental justice activist Dolores Leonard cheered the outcome of the case.
“Without this victory, EPA’s decisions would have let Michigan avoid the rules needed to reduce pollution and keep the air we breathe safe,” Leonard said. “At a time when asthma rates are rising in Detroit, especially in Black communities, that’s unacceptable. With the backing of this federal court decision, our community will continue to push the state of Michigan to take much-needed action to relieve ozone pollution in this area.”
The Clean Air Act requires those pollution control measures to be implemented even after the EPA puts an area back into attainment to ensure the air quality remains healthy, said Nick Leonard, executive director of Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, which argued the Sierra Club’s case.
White’s order means the EGLE will have to reapply for the attainment of the ozone standard, Leonard said.
“At the very least, I would say they have to correct the legal deficiency, which was that they didn’t enact the pollution control rules that are typically required for areas that are in non-attainment for this long,” he said.
The EPA is reviewing the decision, its press office said. The office did not respond to a question about whether it would ask Michigan to adopt volatile organic compound control measures as a result of White’s decision.
The EGLE also is reviewing the ruling, spokesman Dale George said.
“While EGLE was not a party to the case and is not able to speak in detail about the legal outcome, we were encouraged that the court supported the use of exceptional events demonstrations and acknowledged the sound science behind EGLE’s determination that the Detroit area met the health-based ozone standard,” George said.
Leonard said he was disappointed but not surprised that White ruled against the Sierra Club’s arguments that EGLE and the EPA did not correctly account for wildfire smoke’s impact on ozone readings in 2022.
That issue is going to plague communities as climate change causes northern wildfires to become more common and kick smoke into Michigan, he predicted.
“If we start to essentially cut out bad air quality days because of the claim they were partially influenced by wildfire smoke … , you create this disconnect between the regulatory systems that are meant to protect people and the actual air pollution that people are breathing,” Leonard said.
ckthompson@detroitnews.com
The deal, which is pending a physical and has not been confirmed
Detroit, MI
Detroit-area teen charged in carjacking at Applebee’s restaurant bound over to circuit court
A 15-year-old boy who is accused of carjacking a woman last month at an Applebee’s in Roseville, Michigan, is heading to circuit court after waiving his preliminary examination, according to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.
The teen is charged with one count of carjacking, third-degree fleeing a police officer, two counts of malicious destruction of personal property, assault with a dangerous weapon, assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer, operating without a license and failure to stop after a collision.
The teen appeared for a probable cause hearing on Dec. 10 and waived his right to a preliminary examination. He will be arraigned on Jan. 5, 2026.
He remains in at the Macomb County Juvenile Center under a $250,000 cash/surety bond. If he posts bond, he is ordered to wear a GPS tether, be restricted to his mother’s house and have no contact with the victim, witnesses or Applebee’s.
Prosecutors allege that on Nov. 24, 2025, the teen forcibly took a woman’s 2016 Jeep Patriot in the restaurant’s parking lot. The teen took off in the vehicle and crashed it on Gratiot Avenue.
“The allegations and charges in this matter are serious. Carjacking is a violent offense that carries life-altering consequences for victims and offenders alike,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido said in a statement. “To the young people of Macomb County, understand that the choices you make today will determine the path available to you tomorrow. We want every youth in this community to succeed, but that starts with stepping away from dangerous decisions before they lead to irreversible outcomes.”
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