When I started this Electric School Bus (ESB) newsletter three years ago, most states, including my green-tinged home state of Oregon, had no ESBs on the road, and no commitments to order any. Federal funding was nowhere on our horizon. Today, about 1,000 are on the road across a broad swathe of states, more than 12,000 are committed (WRI), and EPA’s Clean School Bus Program is investing a minimum of 2.5 billion/maximum 5 billion over 5 years in ESBs. Its first application deadline of August 19 is nine days away as I write. Crucially, the EPA-funded ESBs will mostly land in underserved communities that have the worst economic situations and/or air quality. Equity frameworks continue to be developed.
A good source stated last week that 900 applications were already submitted to EPA or started, requesting 90% electric buses (zero emissions) and 10% propane buses (propane has emissions that are harmful to children). The more requests EPA receives for electric, the more they may assign the second half of their funds to electric rather than propane.
Applications from the cold Midwest are far outpacing those from the more temperate Pacific Northwest. Not that anybody is feeling competitive around here. While this newsletter has a nationwide focus, my direct assistance to bus fleets is in the Northwest. So, lots of good outreach work ahead for me and my Northwest colleagues (see below).
This issue includes:
- Coverage of August 2nd bipartisan event that supported ESBs
- Public commitments from school bus fleets in Oregon
- Four states now with deadlines for electrifying school buses (California is not one of them)
- Repowering: surprising commitment and conflicting opinions
- Why the Inflation Reduction Act will accelerate ESB adoption
For those new to this newsletter, I’m Alison Wiley here in Oregon, on a mission of electric school buses, equity and inclusion. I’ve worked in low-carbon transportation since 2005, focusing on electric buses since 2016. Mostly I collaborate, i.e. with school bus fleets on helping them to electrify, and with my smart, spirited colleagues at the Alliance For Electric School Buses, World Resources Institute, Forth, the Electric Bus Learning Project and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.
As an extrovert who’s ecstatic to get back to face to face, I’m looking forward to seeing some of you in person next week at the Green Transportation Summit and Expo in Tacoma, Washington. I’ll be moderating the Electric School Bus session on August 18th. Kudos, by the way, to the excellent Green Bus Summit that School Transportation News staged in Reno last month.
Top right: U.S. Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-FL), Chair of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, at Electric Island, a supercharging site in Portland, Oregon, August 3rd. Next to her: U.S. Congressman Buddy Carter (R-GA), member of the same committee. Bottom right: me on left with Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), same committee, with a Thomas Built Jouley electric school bus behind us. Bottom left: Craig Beaver on left, Transportation Director of Beaverton School District, OR, first in Oregon to run ESBs. I told the congress people I appreciate their work, and asked if the push to electrify school buses is as bipartisan as I’ve been imagining it to be, since ESBs are so healthy for kids.
“Let me break the ice. I’m a Republican,” Congressman Buddy Carter boomed cheerfully. “And I’m here to tell you I believe in climate change! We’re not all deniers. . . . I don’t care any less than my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We’ve got [Blue Bird] electric school buses being made in Georgia, and I’m proud of that.” “Thank you!” I beamed at him.
Blue Bird announced recently that it will offer repowering of its gas and propane models, built September 2021 and later, with electric drivetrains, to future-proof fleets. Even though most school buses, including Blue Birds, are diesel, I’m intrigued, since I’m leading a repower project at Forth, and repowering isn’t easy. I asked IC and Thomas Built dealers if they plan to similarly offer repowers, which are very new in the school bus space, but well proven in the public transit space by Complete Coach Works. My IC contact was on vacation, but Chase Schetky replied: “We [Schetky, selling Thomas Built] have a partnership with SEA Electric and can currently convert any make/model diesel, propane, gas bus, regardless of build year, to electric.”
I love can-do attitudes, also bringing prices down (repowers cost half to one-third of a new ESB).
But an engineer deeply experienced in repowering had a different take. “A repower of any given make and model is a whole research and development project,” they told me. “The electrical wiring is very complicated, and you’re building a map for it from the ground up. You’re not assured of success.” The engineer expressed respectful skepticism of SEA’s plan to complete 10,000 repowers in five years for Midwest Transit Equipment. As with all things ESB, I continue to learn steadily and to rely on the experience of many colleagues.
Several Oregon school bus fleets are making public commitments to apply for ESB funding from the EPA by August 19th. It’s not an exhaustive list; my colleagues and I have not yet talked with all 220+ districts in the state.
- Crook County School District
- Sweet Home School District
- Hood River County School District
- Eugene 4J School District
- Tualatin School District
- Six districts, various parts of the state, served by First Student
- Portland Public Schools
- Beaverton School District
I’m commending these bus fleets because, as I’ve often noted, electrifying is hard. It’s disruptive to people whose operations have been profoundly disrupted by the pandemic, and who have painfully had to cancel routes, sometimes 30% of them, for lack of drivers. My ongoing mantra is that bus fleets need and deserve lots of support. CALSTART (shoutout to Rachel Chard), various Clean Cities Coalitions, WRI, Forth and more are assisting fleets in electrifying.
Which four states have set deadlines requiring their school buses to electrify?
Maryland’s new SB528 requires all new school bus purchases and contracts statewide to be electric by 2025.
Maine’s LD 1579 requires that 75% of new school bus purchases and contracts must be zero emissions by 2035.
Connecticut’s SB4 sets an earlier fleet electrification date of 2030 for school buses operating in environmental justice communities (ESBs nationwide are typically required to serve on routes with the worst air pollution).
New York state requires fully zero-emission school bus fleets by 2035, the strongest commitment yet made by any state.
Note: most ESBs currently on U.S. roads are funded by states’ Volkswagen money, with almost all the rest funded by utilities. The pie chart will steadily change as the EPA infuses 2.5 to 5 billion over 5 years. A reliable source states that federal guidance may soon appear that will let states using Volkswagen funds for ESBs to combine and leverage that with any EPA funding they receive. I hope to report on that next month, along with surprising things I learned while doing the ESB resiliency project I wrote about last year for STN.
Finally, how will the Inflation Reduction Act being passed by Congress likely influence the ESB world? It will probably stimulate ESB adoption, because it will trigger growth of renewable energy, especially wind and solar. And wind and solar energy pair very well with ESBs, which of all electric fleet types offer the most battery storage and flexible grid services to utilities. Also, IRA may increase battery production and drive battery prices (and hopefully ESB prices) down. This raises the perennial question of ESBs’ total lifecycle emissions, including the mining done for the batteries’ minerals. This July 2022 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that electrifying our transportation does reduce total lifecycle emissions, even accounting for mining. While the report focuses on gas versus electric rather than diesel versus electric, the footprints of gas and diesel are comparable.
Financial support for this newsletter is provided in part by the World Resources Institute. While the World Resources Institute may engage as a partner on content, it does not control, nor does it necessarily endorse, the contents of this newsletter.
Special thanks to Stephanie Ly for support on the repower project, to Jennifer Rennicks for the information on state legislation, and to Thor Hinckley for the analysis of the IRA’s likely impacts on the ESB world.
Thanks!
Alison Wiley (she/her/hers)
Electric School Bus Newsletter
(541) 295-0255 | alison@electricschoolbus.org
“To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.”
-African proverb