The push to convert the nation鈥檚 diesel bus fleet to electric gained momentum in the last week with new state and federal policies aimed at getting more clean-energy vehicles on the road.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on March 29 issued the that sets higher fuel efficiency standards for manufacturers producing a wide range of heavy-duty vehicles, including school buses, starting in 2027.
The new rule will lead to 40 percent of the vehicles produced in the 鈥渕edium heavy-duty鈥� category鈥攚hich includes school buses鈥攂eing electric by 2032, according to the EPA鈥檚 of the rule.
Meanwhile, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, on March 28 signed into law a to transition to electric buses. Districts with buses manufactured prior to 2007 will get priority consideration.
And in Virginia, a state lawmaker is for electric school buses that has lain dormant since it was established in 2021.
Roughly 500,000 school buses traverse America鈥檚 roads every day. Of those, 4,000 run on electricity, and districts have purchased or committed to another 4,000 electric buses that in the coming years will begin transporting students, according to a maintained by the World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research group focused on sustainability.
The vast majority of school buses run on diesel fuel, which emits high levels of toxic chemicals, smells unpleasant, and poses health risks to people who ride buses regularly. Six states are requiring school districts to transition to all-electric bus fleets over the next couple of decades. Many states and the federal government are pumping money into school districts that want to purchase electric school buses, which tend to cost more upfront than traditional buses but help districts save money on fuel in the long term.
New rules could accelerate electric bus manufacturing鈥攖o an extent
The exact ramifications of the EPA鈥檚 new rule may vary from one manufacturer to the next.
The rule doesn鈥檛 mandate a transition to electric buses. Rather, it requires manufacturers鈥� fleets to not exceed a certain threshold for greenhouse gas emissions.
Manufacturers could choose to prioritize electric vehicle production to achieve that goal. Some manufacturers exclusively produce electric vehicles already.
But manufacturers can instead work to improve the fuel efficiency of their diesel vehicles, said Katherine Roboff, deputy director of external affairs for the Electric School Bus Initiative from the World Resources Institute.
鈥淭here鈥檚 really a menu of options that manufacturers can look at, which makes it a complicated picture,鈥� Roboff said.
Some observers believe the rule won鈥檛 sufficiently advance efforts to reduce emissions.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit coalition of researchers focused on climate change, pointing out that most states don鈥檛 currently have laws in place that require that low-emission models make up an increasingly larger share of newly sold vehicles. In those states, manufacturers won鈥檛 necessarily feel compelled to prioritize electric vehicle production, the group argues.
鈥淓ven under a best-case scenario, EPA鈥檚 rule falls short of the level of zero-emission deployment needed to simultaneously address climate change and the freight pollution overburdening communities around the country,鈥� wrote Dave Cooke, senior vehicles analyst for the group.
Some manufacturers, meanwhile, are less enthused with the rule for different reasons. The president of the American Trucking Associations that the EPA鈥檚 goals are 鈥渆ntirely unachievable given the current state of zero-emission technology, the lack of charging infrastructure, and restrictions on the power grid.鈥� Cummins, a company that makes school bus engines, saying 鈥渢here will be challenges across our industry to reach鈥� the EPA鈥檚 goals.
Still, the rule will have the effect of reducing the overall number of high-emission vehicles on the road. People living in low-income communities are .
As a result, 鈥渁ny progress that we can make cleaning up these vehicles has a really big impact on equity,鈥� said Meredith Epstein, the manager of federal policy for the WRI鈥檚 Electric School Bus Initiative.
