The Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, aka Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, includes $5 billion for EV charging, but — much less discussed — it also includes $5 billion for cleaner school buses, especially electric school buses! This is tranformative.
Many Tesla fans are very upset right now about a spat going on between Elon Musk and some Democratic politicians and political talking heads. It’s an odd spat that has developed one tweet after another for years, especially when you consider that both are on the side of growing the numbers of EVs on the road while Republicans in Congress (and when in the White House) do everything they can to protect fossil fuel industries. The good news is that Democrats passed legislation this year that funds much more electric vehicle charging infrastructure and also funds large-scale adoption of electric school buses. The Republican Party, if in control of Congress, would never create such a bill or pass it. In fact, while they had control of Congress and teh White House, they didn’t even pass a basic infrastructure bill.
Much more was expected from the Build Back Better bill, but that now appears to be dead in the water. I was recently looking through what’s in the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, and one thing jumped out at me — $5 billion for electric school buses.
Image courtesy of Blue Bird
There are many great reasons to support electric vehicles, and electric buses and school buses really maximize those benefits. Exposing our youngest people to hardcore pollution from large diesel buses creates developmental problems, severe health problems (including widespread asthma and sometimes cancer), and global heating that dooms those same people to one of the hardest generational futures in human history.
Support for Electric School Buses and “Low-Emissions Buses”
Thomas Built Buses Inc’s Saf-T-Liner® C2 Jouley electric school bus is powered by Proterra electric vehicle technology.
Before I get gong further into that, though, here’s a quick summary of that portion of the bill courtesy of Grist:
“The bill also contains $5 billion to get started on a national network of electric vehicle chargers, and another $2.5 billion that can be put toward any kind of ‘alternative fueling infrastructure,’ including natural gas, hydrogen, and propane. The bill also allocates $5 billion to replace old, polluting school buses with lower-carbon options, with half the money designated for electric school buses.”
While electric car chargers and electric car subsidies have gotten the most attention in discussions about both of these pieces of legislation, electric bus funding was as large as the funding for EV charging in the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act. Well, there’s a caveat there, as half of the funding could be used for “low-emissions buses” — but that also means it could be used for fully electric buses, just like the other $2.5 billion. Let’s hope the money is used wisely.
Here’s how EPA summarizes its administration of funding:
“Following the passage of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (pdf) (1039 pp, 2.31 MB, November 2021), EPA will be making significant investments in the health, equity, and resilience of American communities. EPA will offer a total of $5 billion between fiscal years 2022 and 2026 to fund the replacement of existing school buses with low- or zero-emission school buses. Each year, $500 million will be available exclusively for electric school buses and $500 million will be available for electric buses and multiple types of cleaner alternative fuel school buses.
“EPA can offer grants and rebates to assist fleets in purchasing new, cleaner school buses and the associated charging and fueling infrastructure. EPA will ensure a broad geographic distribution of awards.”
https://cleantechnica.com/2021/12/18/5-billion-for-electric-school-buses-in-us-infrastructure-investment-jobs-act/