Don’t blow bus fire out of proportion

The story seemed almost prewritten to appeal to skeptics. Luckily, no one was seriously injured, which allowed the story to be quickly politicized. An electric bus, key to Connecticut’s efforts to take on climate change, had burst into flames. Even at this late date, issues of climate cause controversy. Doubters will begrudgingly admit that the planet is warming, but protest vociferously against any efforts to change our trajectory. Too expensive, too inconvenient, too much not my problem — that’s usually what the objections amount to.

That goes for almost anything. When a federal effort was put into changing lightbulbs from their traditional look to a more-efficient, modernized version, traditionalists took to the ramparts. Suddenly the right to keep buying energy-inefficient lightbulbs became a fight for freedom, as if anyone has time to think about such things other than when they need replacing.

It came to a head in 2019 when the Trump administration ruled that a lightbulb policy enacted under the prior administration was unlawful, and that consumers could go ahead and be as wasteful as they desired. No one really gained anything, but someone, somewhere probably felt they had gained a righteous victory for lightbulb freedom.

The story is the same with electric vehicles. The country has been getting by with internalcombustion engines for many years, but it hasn’t come without a price. The transportation sector is a major contributor of harmful emissions, and finding alternate means of powering our vehicles is essential, along with a push to simply drive less. But just as with lighting our homes, changing course on transportation has somehow morphed into an attack on our freedoms in certain corners.

So when the new way doesn’t work — batterypowered cars that malfunction, for example — it’s seized upon by naysayers who say we’d all be better off if we just left things the way they are. Worked fine for me, it’ll work fine for you.

Enough already.

The fire on the bus in Connecticut was serious. Two transit workers were hospitalized after being exposed to the smoke, and a firefighter was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion. The state was smart to take the fleet off the roads and make sure the buses are safe so that no one is hurt by a similar episode in the future.

But we’re not going to abandon battery-powered vehicles. It’s not as though the safety record for diesel power is spotless, either, to say nothing of the damage caused by air pollution over the years, which hits heaviest in the most vulnerable neighborhoods. There are 12 electric buses in Connecticut, and approximately 50 more are on the way. This is an excellent start toward replacing polluting and noisy vehicles with quiet, emissions-free means of travel. Much more on this path is necessary.

Connecticut officials are patting themselves on the back over the recent passage of our own Clean Air Act, which takes numerous steps toward cutting emissions. But much work remains. Transportation, especially, is a major problem area and will require dramatic changes if we are to meet our goals.

But let’s not pretend this incident is bigger than it is. The stakes for all of us are too high.

The country has been getting by with internal-combustion engines for many years, but it hasn’t come without a price.