This issue includes:
- The green of money: EPA Clean School Bus Program update
- A rural reader confronts me on greeness and equity
- Green fuel that bridges us to electric, cheaply
- Cleaner buses improve school attendance
- In-person WASBE gathering in June (Women Accelerating School Bus Electrification)
- Green Bus Summits: one early bird deadline is tomorrow
I’m Alison Wiley here in Oregon, 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) make the complex topic of ESBs more accessible and understandable to a wide variety of readers. This newsletter is a member of the nationwide, equity-focused Alliance For Electric School Buses.
Money is the green thing that all of us stare at. ESBs cost so dang much, we have to be obsessed with funding, and the prices keep going up, even though increased volume (which EPA funding has helped to create) normally drives prices down. I am no economist, but the term price gouging starts to float in the air. Diesel exhaust is a carcinogen, and children’s health is at stake. Someone show me what I’m not seeing here?
The EPA has promised to announce this spring its new Clean School Bus Program (CSBP) funding round. It will be a grant application; deadlines are typically 90 days after the announcement is made. I’m told there’s internal dialogue (disagreement) over whether and how the grants and evaluation process may be distributed across EPA’s ten geographic regions. EPA states that this fall, they’ll release a third funding round, a rebate lottery similar to that of 2022, with a simple application. This newsletter will keep you posted on these.
My last thought for now about money: I’d love for manufacturers to explain why it can cost 80-100 thousand less to buy a brand new diesel bus and repower it to become electric than it does to buy a new electric school bus in the first place. Why?
A Rural Reader Confronts Me
Mark M., a school bus mechanic with 40 years experience who works for a district in rural Oregon, replied to my February newsletter Behind The Scenes of Electric School Buses:
“Alison, we have chosen to go with propane powered busing. The technology for electric is not proven as of yet. Many years of trial and error need to happen. Plus, to produce that electric vehicle has a large impact on our earth that many do not mention . . . . I, as you, care deeply about mother earth.” I replied that I respect his district’s choice (not the first such conversation I’ve had). Then Mark went deeper.
“You mention [in your email signature] that you are on ancestral lands of the Multnomah, Chinook and Cowlitz peoples. With the technology you are pushing, remember that resources must come from some one’s land that they are fond of. The land you live on may be next to support your passion (emphasis mine).
I refrained from digging up the Union of Concerned Scientist citation about the cradle to grave smaller footprint of electric versus fossil fueled propulsion, because Mark’s point rightfully transcends that. What if it were my own lushly forested Mt. Tabor park three blocks from my house that turned out to have lithium deposits that were needed to make ESB batteries? Would I accept the trails I’ve run on a thousand times being torn up? (Extraction, whether of minerals or fossils fuels, leaves land looking like a war zone.) No, I would not. I’d protest it. And my white privilege would minimize my risk in doing that.
I will circle back to Mark’s and my correspondence in my closing, and I’ll note that all transportation has an impact on the earth, including the green versions, just as all energy does.
Renewable Diesel As Bridge To Electric
Propane is often seen as the green, thrifty alternative to electric, especially in the West. But renewable diesel, which can be dropped into any diesel engine, costs slightly less than petroleum diesel in Oregon, while yielding 60 percent average reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to petroleum diesel, and 40 percent particulate emission reduction (Climate Solutions). My non-exhaustive survey found that Beaverton, Eugene 4J, Salem-Keizer and David Douglas School Districts are using R99, often exclusively. This fuel is a lovely shade of green; it made my month to learn that thousands of kids, as well as our climate, are currently benefiting from its use.
Student Attendance Rises With Cleaner Buses
This recent study of diesel school buses that got upgraded to reduce their emissions shows that the students who then rode the cleaner buses had improved attendance rates. The upgrades came from 2012-2017 EPA funding (precursor of its CSBP). An earlier 2019 study showed that reducing diesel school bus emissions significantly improved the English test scores of the students who rode the cleaner buses. Background: many children have asthma that’s worsened by diesel exhaust, and air quality inside diesel school buses is, ironically, 10x worse than outside them. If you know of any pre-post studies on students who rode diesel buses and then electric, please let me know.
Green Bus Summits Coming Up
Conferences help us to dialogue and learn about new technology together. Please tell me of more conferences to list. I’ve observed that EPA officials attend many of the below. STN stands for School Transportation News. I plan to attend the first two listed below, and my home state’s Oregon Pupil Transportation Association Conference. OPTA’s early bird deadline is May 19th.
STN Green Bus Summit East, June 4-5, 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Early Bird deadline April 28 (saves $100). Agenda here. WASBE (Women Accelerating School Bus Electrification) are meeting for a bike ride and drinks, details TBA.
STN Green Bus Summit West, July 16, 2023 in Reno, Nevada. Super early bird deadline (saves $200) is April 14. Early bird deadline (saves $100) is June 9. Part of larger expo/conference from July 14-19, 2023.
Pupil Transportation Conferences in many states and Canadian provinces, typically in June and July, listed in STN industry calendar
Forth’s Roadmap, May 15-17, 2023 in Portland, Oregon. One session on ESBs, specifically on repowers, at 11 a.m. Tue May 16.
Green Transportation Summit and Expo “Accelerate To Zero” Aug 22-24, 2023 in Tacoma, Washington.
Back to my good critic Mark M. in rural Oregon, who gave me permission to quote him. “Alison you impress me,” he writes. “We are having a conversation without aggression or bad feelings.” “You impress me too,” I write back. “Respectful conversation about differing perspectives [is] too rare these days.”
“I do not have all the answers,” Mark writes. Neither do I. I need to keep learning.
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.
Thanks!
Alison Wiley (she/her/hers)
Electric School Bus Newsletter
I am on the ancestral lands of the Multnomah, Chinook and Cowlitz peoples.
Whose land are you on?