Worth the wait, right? Now we all have what we need to either apply to the EPA for electric school bus (ESB) funding, or support school districts, Tribal schools, etc. in applying for it. I am in the second category. I and others will be spending our summer, til the August 19th deadline, helping hard-working Transportation Directors to apply for ESB funds. This will be fun!
My advice: apply for ESB funds whether or not you’re on EPA’s prioritized list. Why? Many of the prioritized districts won’t yet be interested. Also, the EPA may expand this round’s funding well beyond the current 500 million pot if spurred by enough applications (their program is for five billion over five years). If you missed last month’s newsletter, here are five reasons to buy ESB’s rather than propane.
This issue includes
- Three tips on landing/helping to land ESB funding from EPA
- News of lawsuit re: diesel exhaust of idling school buses harming children’s health
- News of a freshly posted Repower Request For Proposals, kicking off a diesel-to-electric repower project I am leading at Forth
1.) Bookmark key parts of EPA’s Clean School Bus Program website (there is so much there!). Remember, winners will be named via a lottery of eligible applications, to be announced in October, and rebates will be issued up front after purchase orders are placed. Up front payment helps level the playing field between rich and poor districts — well done, EPA!
- Deadline for this round is August 19, 2022 (many more rounds to follow over next four years)
- Home page of EPA’s Clean School Bus Program (many sub-links within it)
- Buses Eligible to be Replaced and Eligible Replacement Buses
- Application User Guide
- Events including EPA webinars and recordings of past webinars
2.) Get your SAM.gov number now. You can’t apply without it. It replaces the DUNS number system long used by entities receiving funds from the federal government. My colleague Neil and I are meeting virtually this week with a Transportation Director this Friday to help them get theirs.
3.) Engage purposefully with your bus yard’s utility (or help districts and Tribes do that). As I write, I’m in a small Oregon town — small towns’ school districts are the great majority of the EPA’s prioritized list — that is served by its own municipal electric department. But I found in visiting the Transportation Director that their bus yard is (double take) a Pacific Power customer. So, her meetings and relationship will be with Pacific Power. Be crystal clear on meeting with the right utility; they are becoming a fuel supplier to your fleet. Take a look at World Resources Institute’s Power Planning Guide. I also recommend this federal publication Toolkit For Planning and Funding Electric Mobility Infrastructure. It’s lengthy, but the sections on medium duty and heavy duty (MD and HD) apply to electric school buses.
Let’s take note of this first of its kind lawsuit against diesel school bus exhaust. The suit, led by the Attorney General of New York against three New York City school bus companies, is for its diesel buses violating idling laws, thereby polluting the air and harming the health particularly of low income, Black and brown children. Are you old enough, as I am, to remember years of smoke-filled restaurants, workplaces and airplanes? And how that changed, via federal requirements, to no smoking in those public places, and all of us then getting to breathe cleaner, healthier air?
To clarify, as I’ve done before: I love school buses in general, regardless of fuel type, because they hold public education together, and therefore our society. I respect the legions of bus drivers and Transportation Directors who bleed yellow, i.e. are deeply devoted to children and their safe transport, often for low pay. I do see the zero emissions of ESB’s as supporting their health, as well as children’s health. And I grieve the ghastly school shooting that just happened — I have to mention that, since it hurts all of our hearts, and even our collective mental health.
Finally, I’m pleased to be leading, with my Forth colleagues, what I believe is the first project in the Pacific Northwest to repower a mid-life diesel school bus with an electric powertrain. (Two repowers have been on the road awhile in New York, and Midwest Transit Equipment is charging ahead with large-scale school bus repowers in the middle of the country.) Here is our Repower Request For Proposal. Beaverton School District here in Oregon is our partner.
Last month a dealer of a major school manufacturer emailed me that they were opposed to repowers, evidently based on safety concerns. Since repowered buses will have to conform to the same state safety requirements as all other school buses, I don’t share that concern. My intuition is that dealers and manufacturers may be more concerned about repowers impacting their profits. But I’d be happy to be proven wrong on that. Children’s health and our shared, endangered climate come first, and repowers can speed up fleet transition exponentially.
Special thanks to Tomas Endicott of Bonneville Environmental Foundation and Neil Baunsgard of The Environmental Center for putting together the rural/consumer utility focused Electric School Bus Funding Webinar coming up on June 7, 11 a.m. PST. With thousands of rural school districts prioritized by the EPA for ESB funding, engaging the consumer owned utilities that serve them, and encouraging them to partner with their local school bus fleets, is one of the most powerful things we can do.
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.
Need help filling out electric school bus application? Check out this page for some help!
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