Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff the production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Bogibom here. America's famous yellow school buses
Speaker 1: have been slowly going electric, but more still will be
Speaker 1: plugging in soon, thanks in large part to the one
Speaker 1: point to twillion dollar bipartisan Infrastructure bill passed by the
Speaker 1: US Senate auguste. While the bill has not yet been
Speaker 1: passed into law, and many in the sustainable transportation community
Speaker 1: are already excited about what this bill could mean for
Speaker 1: the possibility of electrifying more of the US's fleet of
Speaker 1: four hundred and eighty thousand school buses, and how that
Speaker 1: could help lower emissions and improve air quality. Of the
Speaker 1: one point to trillion dollar infrastructure bill, two point five
Speaker 1: billion is earmarked for zero emissions buses, enough for roughly
Speaker 1: eleven thousand electric vehicles, and another two point five billion
Speaker 1: for low emission buses, which could be fueled by natural
Speaker 1: gas or propane. While this may seem like a lot
Speaker 1: of money, it's significantly less than what President Joe Biden
Speaker 1: initially proposed in March of this year, which was a
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy four billion dollar lump sum to boost
Speaker 1: the electric vehicle market, including nine thousand school buses instead
Speaker 1: of the eleven thousand that the bill would now cover.
Speaker 1: So why school buses? There are a lot of reasons
Speaker 1: it makes sense for school buses to go electric. First,
Speaker 1: most new electric buses have a range of up to
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty miles. That's a hundred nine KOs
Speaker 1: on a single charge, which is plenty far enough for
Speaker 1: the average school bus route on. Second, some charging systems
Speaker 1: can charge a bus in just ninety minutes. Plus, Electric
Speaker 1: buses also require a lot less maintenance than their diesel counterparts,
Speaker 1: but it's also simple numbers. School buses currently make up
Speaker 1: around of the buses on the roads in the US,
Speaker 1: and those run on high polluting diesel fuel the right now,
Speaker 1: less than one percent are electric. For context, the entire
Speaker 1: US transit fleet has around four and eighty thousand school
Speaker 1: buses and just seventy public transportation buses. That's less than
Speaker 1: fift percent of the number of school buses. For the article,
Speaker 1: this episode is based on how Stuff Works. Spoke with
Speaker 1: Lauren Justice, development director at the Center for Transportation and
Speaker 1: the Environment. She said transportation is the largest contributor to
Speaker 1: greenhouse gas emissions in the US. The medium and heavy
Speaker 1: duty sector produces more than percent of these emissions, despite
Speaker 1: comprising less than five percent of vehicles on the road.
Speaker 1: If the entire school bus fleet were electrified, greenhouse gas
Speaker 1: emissions from all buses in the US would be reduced
Speaker 1: by around fifty Along with the issue of adding greenhouse
Speaker 1: gases into the atmosphere, thus increasing global warming and its
Speaker 1: associated risks, these emissions are also harmful for the twenty
Speaker 1: million school children who ride these buses to school. Not
Speaker 1: only are these buses emitting in the neighborhoods through which
Speaker 1: they drive, but the pollution inside the bus can actually
Speaker 1: be up to twelve times higher than ambient levels. In addition,
Speaker 1: it's an issue of equity. According to the World Resources Institute,
Speaker 1: students from low income communities are particularly exposed to this
Speaker 1: toxic pollution, and some sixty percent of students from low
Speaker 1: income families use buses to get to and from school,
Speaker 1: compared with forty five percent of students from higher income families,
Speaker 1: an issue that's exacerbated in communities of color due to
Speaker 1: America's history of racist economic policies in both the government
Speaker 1: and private sector that concentrated those communities closer to highways
Speaker 1: and policies from zoning, to housing, to lending to the
Speaker 1: very construction of our highway system. And Justice said switching
Speaker 1: from diesel powered school buses to electric could avoid an
Speaker 1: average a five point three million tons of greenhouse gas
Speaker 1: emissions each year and over seven hundred thousand pounds that's
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand kilos of ep A criteria pollutants admitted
Speaker 1: near children. So can it be done? Advocates believe it
Speaker 1: can be, but they say much more money needs to
Speaker 1: be allocated to the issue, and that the infrastructure bill
Speaker 1: is definitely not enough on its own. And it's not
Speaker 1: just about money. There also need to be plans in
Speaker 1: place to help school districts through the transition to electric buses,
Speaker 1: and Justice said the critical piece that any successful plan
Speaker 1: must include is an avenue for school districts to receive
Speaker 1: technical assistance. While most school buses are still diesel powered,
Speaker 1: some districts have been adding electric buses to their fleets.
Speaker 1: In Maryland, for example, the Montgomery County Public School System
Speaker 1: has plans to get three hundred and twenty six electric
Speaker 1: school buses over the next four years. This is the
Speaker 1: largest commitment by any single school district today. Thirty three
Speaker 1: states have electric school buses announced, procured, delivered, or in operation. However,
Speaker 1: as previously mentioned, the is inequality baked into the system,
Speaker 1: and that's just as true for which areas will get
Speaker 1: more electric school buses more quickly. Already, the largest share
Speaker 1: thirty percent of school districts with at least one electric
Speaker 1: school bus, are in suburban areas, which tend to be wealthier.
Speaker 1: In addition, about sixty of all committed future electric buses
Speaker 1: are in suburban areas, versus just percent in cities, seven
Speaker 1: percent in towns, and six percent in rural areas. Along
Speaker 1: with the infrastructure bill, there are numerous other programs and
Speaker 1: political initiatives to electrify the nation's school buses. In February
Speaker 1: of this year, the Clean school Bus Act was reintroduced
Speaker 1: in the US Senate and the House of Representatives. This
Speaker 1: act would establish a Clean school Bus Grant program to
Speaker 1: award grants to replace existing school buses with electric ones. However,
Speaker 1: as of now, the bill is stalled in subcommittee. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Federal Transit Authorities Low or No Emission Vehicle Program
Speaker 1: allocates roughly two million dollars in funding for low and
Speaker 1: no emissions buses and the facilities that support them. Its
Speaker 1: goal is to support the Infrastructure Bill to reduce greenhouse
Speaker 1: gas emissions by by the end of the decade. And
Speaker 1: speaking of funding, electric school buses do cost more than
Speaker 1: diesel powered, but they can lead to long term savings
Speaker 1: for school districts who purchase them. For several reasons, electricity
Speaker 1: is typically less expensive than diesel fuel, and as said above,
Speaker 1: electric buses require less maintenance. Plus, if the districts equip
Speaker 1: their schools with vehicle to grid technology, they can both
Speaker 1: draw energy from and return it to the electrical grid.
Speaker 1: A While Justice and other clean transportation advocates are pleased
Speaker 1: to the Infrastructure Bill and local governments are addressing this problem,
Speaker 1: they know that there's still a long way to go
Speaker 1: when it comes to electrifying school buses in the United States.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article why you want
Speaker 1: your kids school bus to be Electric on how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com, written by Stephanie Parker. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clay. Four more
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