As we head into the 2024-2025 school year, more students in the U.S. are getting to class in electric school busses.
Just this week, the World Resources Institute announced in a press release that its Electric School Bus Initiative is going to receive $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to advance transportation electrification. That came from a total of $32.5 million awarded by the EPA to get electric vehicles on the road.
According to the release, the $1 million will go to a “train-the-trainer” program intended to increase school districts’ capacity to adopt electric school buses, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Last year, the World Resources Institute said that said 90% of the busses that take 20 million American students to school each day are diesel.
“That’s a problem: diesel exhaust, a known carcinogen, is too dangerous for children to breathe,” it said.
However, it noted that electric school busses were operating in a variety of communities and climates through the country. Axios explained in an article this week that the movement for clean student transportation is fueled by “a plethora of state and federal incentives.”
As of this year, the EPA has given out 991 awards totaling close to $2.8 billion to 1,294 school districts. Through those awards, 8,727 busses are to be replaced.
“With funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA’s Clean School Bus Program provides $5 billion over five years (FY 2022-2026) to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and clean school buses,” said the EPA. This January, the EPA announced announced $1 billion for the purchase of over 2,700 clean school buses in 280 school districts across 37 states.
Back in 2022, the White House announced that the Biden-Harris administration’s Clean School Bus Program was expected to “result in healthier air for many of the 25 million American children who rely on school buses every day.”
“Electric school buses have no tailpipe emissions, making them the cleanest and healthiest school bus option. They account for the lowest levels of greenhouse gas emissions of any school bus type,” according to the Electric School Bus Initiative. “And best of all, they’re here today: electric school buses are on the road from coast-to-coast, covering rural, suburban and urban routes with thousands more expected to hit the road in coming years.”
In addition to being easier on the environment than diesel vehicles, electric busses offer other perks, according to Axios. For example, it said they can act as giant batteries when they aren’t being used.
“That means cash-strapped districts can earn money from their parked buses by selling power back to the grid during times of peak demand,” said the outlet.
Earlier this year, researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health also published a study that found replacing diesel school buses with electric school buses may yield up to $247,600 in climate and health benefits per individual bus.
In Oakland, Calif., electric bus startup Zoom also offers a perk directly to parents – an app that allows them to track where their child’s bus is, according to Canary Media.
“Parents can check the app to see, ‘Oh, my bus is here – they’re getting there 10 minutes early,’ or ‘I’m not coming to school today, so the bus can change its route,” said Sam Davis, Oakland Unified School District board president.