SPEED UP THE SHIFT TO ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUSES
Everyone wants to keep their children healthy and help clean up the planet. One of the best ways to address both desires is to convert the nation’s 450,000 school buses from diesel to electric. Diesel buses are not only one of the larger polluters on the road, but they also exacerbate health issues like childhood asthma. The costs of lithium-ion batteries — the essential components of electric vehicles — are reaching record lows, making now the perfect time to convert school district fleets. Forward-looking school districts and electric vehicle makers are already converting school bus fleets to electric power. Here’s how other districts can follow their lead.
Data shows just how badly diesel buses affect the health of our communities and the kids riding the buses. Around 20 million children rely on 500,000 buses to get to and from school. But around 95 percent run on diesel, a known carcinogen. Air pollution inside diesel buses is 12 times higher than ambient levels. Tailpipe pollution from buses can trigger asthma attacks, interfere with lung development, and cause cancer and learning difficulties.
Electric buses are safer, and their costs are plummeting. The cost of lithium-ion batteries has dropped over 90 percent in the last decade and both former Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have said they will dramatically reduce lithium-ion battery production costs in coming years. Electric buses reduce fuel costs by up to 90 percent and maintenance costs by up to 75 percent over diesel. All told, school districts can expect savings of $400,000 in fuel costs and $125,000 in maintenance costs over the typical 12-year lifespan of a bus. These innovations will enable school districts to buy cleaner, safer and cheaper electric buses.
In other good news, the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration has consistently found electric vehicles to be safer in crashes than gasoline and dieselpowered vehicles, and Congress just passed a once-in-a-generation $369 billion green stimulus fund with the Environmental Protection Agency designating $5 billion for clean school and transit buses.
As of December, the United
States has 5,612 electric school buses and there are plans to convert another 10,000 diesel buses. California is home to two-thirds of all delivered and operational electric school buses.
Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency opened 2023 applications for its Clean School Bus Program. Previous application rounds saw 400 school districts spanning all 50 states awarded funding and 2,400 new electric buses bought.
On April 25, the San Diego Unified School District approved phasing out all fossil fuels, including those used in buildings and bus fleets and buses by 2024. The district is also implementing a curriculum to prepare students for careers in electrification and clean energy fields. Utility companies are innovating, too: In 2020, Dominion Energy announced that it would help put 50 electric school buses on the road in Virginia by the end of that year with plans to bring 1,000 more online by 2025. To date, the first 50 buses have been delivered but legislation greenlighting the larger part of the plan failed in the Virginia General Assembly. Using vehicle-togrid technology, the bus batteries store and inject energy into the grid for periods of high demand.
States should pay particular attention to making sure that vulnerable communities are not left behind. To some extent, this will happen naturally since students from low-income families are more likely to ride the bus to school. In fact, two-thirds of electric school buses are located in districts made up mostly of communities of color. But only about one-quarter of districts that currently have at least one electric bus are among the top 25 percent most economically vulnerable communities. The majority of these districts are in California, which offers half of the 10 largest funding sources available, and focuses these funds on areas with high air pollution.
Since air pollution in vulnerable communities tends to be higher, states can create similar programs to fund electric school bus transitions while ensuring that the most vulnerable school children are not left behind.
California is a global climate leader with an ambitious plan to be carbon neutral by 2045. Electrifying school bus fleets across the state will help to meet that goal and ensure students are no longer exposed to harmful diesel pollution on their way to and from school.
The shift won’t just help address climate change. Tailpipe pollution from diesel buses can cause cancer and learning difficulties.
Westly is an entrepreneur, Stanford University instructor and former controller of the state of California. He lives in Menlo Park.