Top Five Myths About Electric School Buses

I confess I have bought into lots of myths in my lifetime. For example, in 2008 as a transportation options geek I thought that replacing car trips with bike and bus trips was the most powerful way to reduce emissions (I was unaware of electric back then). And in my youth I bought into the idea you could only dance if a man asked you to. I missed out on too much dancing that way; have you noticed women like to dance more than men? Debunking myths can be transformative!

This issue includes:

• Top Five Myths About Electric School Buses
• How to join one of the best ESB focused meetings in the country
• WASBE forum February 14, 2023 (Women Accelerating School Bus Electrification)

I’m Alison Wiley here in Oregon, now an ESB, equity and inclusion geek. I’ve worked in low-carbon transportation since 2006, focusing on electric buses since 2016. My newsletters (housed here) try to make the complex, fast-growing field of ESBs more accessible and understandable to its advocates, practitioners and would-be practitioners. This newsletter is a  member of the nationwide, equity-focused Alliance For Electric School Buses, and is partially funded by the World Resources Institute’s Electric School Bus Initiative.

Myth 1.) It’s all about landing funding for a new ESB. This is the most popular myth, our most natural assumption, and I half believed it myself until recently. But repowers cost half to a third of a new ESB, and have been running steadily in New York City under contractor Logan Bus since 2021. The low price of repowers is comparable to a funding source, affordability-wise. Proof of concept: 65 repowered public transit buses have logged three million miles nationwide since 2014. School Transportation News plans to publish an article on repowers in March, both the online and print editions, which I cowrote with Tim Farquer of Williamsfield Schools in Illinois. Williamsfield plans to receive their first repower in February.

Myth 2.) ESBs can work in cities, but not rural areas. While ESBs’ regenerative braking does perform best in urban stop and go traffic, rural districts in numerous states are also running ESBs with solid success. I had the pleasure recently of interviewing Andy Turgeon, the Superintendent of Knox County R1 School District in rural Missouri, which received its first ESB in February, 2021. Knox R1 is the only district I know of that’s posting its ESB data for public reference, and that has reinvented a decommissioned diesel bus as a coffee shop as a new ESB displaced it. Rural school districts in Tok, Alaska and Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, California and more are also running ESBs.

Myth 3.) ESBs depend on fancy California money and easy California weather. It’s true that our most populous state has the largest number of ESBs on the road, and that it’s invested the most funding in them. However, it’s Maine, Maryland, Connecticut and New York that have issued mandates with deadlines for electrifying their school buses. Austin Independent School District in Texas created an aggressive deadline of 2035 to sunset diesel buses. And weather-wise, the sub-freezing Midwest is a hotbed of ESBs (see below). As the ESB Initiative points out, at least 38 states are operating and/or funding ESBs. Bottom line: California has lost its crown of uniqueness.

Myth 4.) ESBs are less clean than propane. Flat out not true, and debunked by US PIRG, World Resources Institute and others. The To clarify, I have no criticism of school districts running propane buses. Their decisions were made in good faith, i.e., propane is cleaner than diesel. I do criticize the Propane and Energy Research Council for spreading anti-electrification, climate-denying, profit-motivated misinformation (NYT). On a positive note, I met yesterday again with Portland Public Schools, helping them strategize on how to transition their all propane fleet to electric. They’re expecting to receive their first ESBs (Green Power Type A’s) next month.

Myth 5.) Every school bus fleet should get started with electric buses, right now. No, actually they shouldn’t. Each fleet is unique. Let’s engage people around what’s true for them. Tiny or understaffed fleets may not be able to absorb an ESB not performing well right away, or the disruption of installing charging stations, or extra work without extra pay). Moreover, opposition to ESBs, whether from superintendent, school board, transportation directors or mechanics, could sabotage an ESB project.

Most importantly, if a given community, especially a disadvantaged one, has other priorities for limited time and money resources and rejects the idea of ESBs at this point, I suggest their priorities should be honored. At least one district granted funding by Dominion Energy two years ago decided that ESBs were not in their existing plan, and they declined. I respect that. I imagine the money got reassigned to a district that did want to do an ESB pilot.