Chuck: A ‘Green New Wheel’ for clean buses

More than 70,000 gas-guzzling public transit buses across the country — including nearly 6,000 in the Big Apple — would be replaced with electric and hydrogen-fueled fleets under a clean energy plan unveiled by Sen. Chuck Schumer on Tuesday.

Schumer, joined by public transportation and environmental justice advocates, rolled out the “Green New Wheel” plan during a press conference in front of the MTA’s Tuskegee Airmen Bus Depot in East Harlem.

“Too many buses spew dirty diesel. That hurts the workers, that hurts the commuters, that hurts everyone,” said Schumer, the leader of the Senate’s Democratic majority.

President Biden’s infrastructure-focused American Jobs Plan earmarks $25 billion for building more zero-emissions buses — but Schumer said another $50 billion is needed to make his 100% clean energy bus framework reality.

“He’s given us a start,” Schumer said of Biden. “But it’s not enough.”

Negotiations on Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan are underway on Capitol Hill, and Schumer said he’ll make jacking up funding for retrofitting fossil fuel-driven buses a priority.

A White House spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.

Schumer did not offer a time line for how long it would take to carry out his effort.

In the city, the MTA has a plan to convert its entire fleet of 5,800 buses to electric by 2040, and plans to buy only electric buses starting in 2028.

But the technology poses big challenges.

The MTA currently has just 25 electric buses in its fleet, which have enough battery storage to run for three or four hours and take up to seven hours to charge. A third of the MTA’s bus routes are too long for its current electric buses to operate, MTA officials have said.