Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was last week when New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced an additional $200 million being available for zero-emission school buses through the third installment of funding from the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022.
The funding, distributed through the New York School Bus Incentive Program (NYSBIP), supports the purchase of electric buses, charging infrastructure, and fleet electrification planning as public schools transition to zero-emission technologies that improve air quality and reduce pollution in communities.
Hochul says this investment helps ensure that schoolchildren, drivers, and the communities where they live across New York benefit from clean, quiet, and healthy buses.
"When a child is standing at the bus stop and ingesting diesel fumes, it is not healthy. So as a mom, this is important to me as well, to have this transition completed as soon as possible," said Gov. Hochul on Friday during a visit to Buffalo.
Modernizing public school transportation with zero-emission buses has been a priority for Gov. Hochul to ensure the health of New York students. The Fiscal Year 2025-26 State Budget continued to build momentum for school districts to put electric school buses on the road this year, while providing districts with additional flexibility and time to complete their electrification plans and get hands-on experience with this new technology.
The new independent range estimate requirement for bus manufacturers will also give school districts greater confidence that the buses will meet specific mileage and route conditions.
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However, there are some schools across the state that have expressed their concerns over the ability to accommodate the state's all-electric push by the 2035 deadline.
Recently, officials in the Greece Central School District in the Rochester area called the recent funding announcement "a drop in the bucket," saying the estimated cost for the district to put forward an all-electric fleet of buses will range from $120 million-to-150 million.
Gov. Hochul understands that this is a burden for some school districts, which is why the state has already granted extensions for some districts facing the challenges of moving to all-electric. She adds New York will continue to work with districts to meet every all-electric mandate going forward.
"I have been very accommodating in helping people meet those deadlines, and understanding there have been cost pressures that didn't exist at the time. Whether it was the supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, whether it was inflation that continues to go up, and now the costs of steel and aluminum are going up because of the Trump tax tariffs. And let's acknowledge those additional costs, because everything is going up," Hochul said. "We're just letting people know we want them to meet those goals, but we're also being real common sense about what's in the realm of reality."
Since NYSBIP’s launch, 88 school districts have applied for funds to purchase 529 buses, which includes 50 priority school districts accounting for 406 buses, and 400 districts are now working with NYSERDA to create Fleet Electrification Plans.
For Sweet Home Central School District, this process to flip its fleet of buses to all-electric started four years ago.
"Our strategy was to look at grant money, tap into every dollar that we could find to ease the burden on our taxpayers, basically with a goal of buying electric buses at the same cost as diesel with the help of grant funding," said superintendent Mike Ginestre in an interview with WBEN. "We've tapped into grants from NYSERDA, we've tapped into grants from the EPA, and right now, we have three electric buses, and we're scheduled for eight more this year, all at and really no additional cost to our taxpayers of what they normally would have cost for diesel."
While Ginestre admits it's been an aggressive timeline from New York State to meet the all-electric mandate, Sweet Home has tapped into every dollar the district has been able to. He estimates by the end of this year, the district will have around 15%-to-20% of its fleet flipped.
"I think it's clear from the Governor's Office that this is an important initiative of hers, and I think school districts, like Sweet Home, I'm really proud of the work that we've done so far to try to meet the mandate, because it really doesn't seem like it's going away," Ginestre said. "There's been talk of extensions, but I think this is an important initiative in the Governor's Office, and I think it's moving forward. With that said, we have to tap into every dollar that we can, and the $200 million is a start."
Ginestre admits there has been plenty of challenges along the way to meet the all-electric mandate for school buses, which is why he's hoping there will be additional funding coming the district's way.
"I'm proud of our work. I think it's a very aggressive timeline still, but we're going to act aggressive at Sweet Home to meet this timeline and to meet the deadline," Ginestre said. "We didn't want to come into 2027, when we had to start buying buses, or 2035 and tell our taxpayers, 'Look, we need 60 electric buses, and we need them now.' This has been a long-term effort at Sweet Home, and we're going to continue with our efforts to flip our fleet."
Meanwhile, Mark Laurrie, superintendent of Niagara Falls City Schools, says the district is moving more slower than others with the electric school bus push. He says there is still a lot of work that needs to be done with the bus service provider they're contracted with, Niagara Falls Coastlines.
"One of the concerns I have is the ability to construct the infrastructure that is going to be needed to power those buses. So it's not just the purchase of the buses, but our concern is the infrastructure needed to be built to charge the buses," Laurrie said with WBEN. "We're completing an $18 million air conditioning project, and it's taken us 29 months just to get the transformer poles. So I have a little bit of concern in that area. Of course, I know this is the movement, but in Niagara Falls, even with this announcement, we are taking a very slow and cautious approach."
Laurrie is in agreeance with officials from the Greece School District in Rochester, especially being a smaller district, saying what has been allotted for this push is not enough money for all districts across New York, and the process is a major undertaking.
"We're taking a real slow, methodical approach to this, and we even intend to apply for the new extensions that have been allotted in the recent budget. So I agree, that is not a lot of money for the amount of work and infrastructure that needs to be built," he said.
What Laurrie feels may be a better solution for the all-electric push with school buses is for a couple of targeted districts in the state to roll this out in that way, and see how it goes.
"Maybe select areas where infrastructure can be more easily built, select areas where maybe there's a smaller needed fleet of buses, maybe the drive isn't so long. Get this done right in a small, piloted step, and then start to replicate and roll it out not with one hard and fast deadline for the entire state, but to systematically move through the state, selectively picking districts, supporting them as fully as can be supported, and going that way and learning. Learning what's working, what's not working, what the challenges are," Laurrie said.
"I know there's concerns about distance of trips and charging and weather, and just recently we had a loss of power because of the draw on the grid, because of the heat and the air conditioning that we're running. What if that was a school day? Would that have impacted us? Would it not? I think there needs to be a couple of cycles and a more piloted, scaffolded approach to doing this."