By Alex Seidleck
Growing up, riding the bus was a fun filled time where my friends and I would meet up and make plans for our after school adventures. The time spent on the bus would be filled with joyous laughter. As my friends and I would attempt to trade hand sanitizers the smells of them were dominated by the diesel fumes. As an asthmatic, I would often choose to walk to school, rather than ride the bus with my classmates, as it was easier on my lungs.
School buses are the largest contributor to the US public transportation network, with approximately 480,000 buses transporting at least 21 million children daily. In Michigan alone, 800,000 children are carried by school buses daily. Currently, 98.7 % of these buses are fuelled by diesel despite its known contribution to children’s ill-health and environmental pollution. Diesel exhaust contains gaseous and particulate pollutants such as nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, formaldehyde, ozone and black carbon etc., often with a higher concentration inside the bus than in ambient surroundings. Children are particularly vulnerable due to their higher breathing rate, active growth, and smaller airway size, where particulate matter <2.5µm tends to get lodged. Exposure to diesel exhaust has been linked to asthma, allergies, future infections, long-term poor lung function, and poor neurocognitive development such as IQ and memory to rare cancers. Children in low-income neighborhoods are disproportionately affected as the funding decisions for cleaner alternatives are often based on economic indicators of school districts. More than 4.7 million Michigan residents across 10 counties live in air quality nonattainment areas, and tailpipe exhaust is the leading source of harmful air pollution. With zero tailpipe pollution, electric buses drastically improve air quality for all Michiganders, especially those exposed to high levels of exhaust from trucks and buses, such as urban residents and rural students. We know low-income and BIPOC communities face the worst air quality as a result of inequitable transportation systems.
By transitioning our school transportation system over to electric buses, we will be able to make a substantial impact in benefiting public health. The community will benefit immensely from the integration of electric buses into our public transportation. Children and the drivers will be the first to feel the power of the change. The buses are cleaner, quieter, and have a significantly lower life cycle compared to the diesel alternative. While the higher up-front costs of electric buses are offset by lower fuel and maintenance costs over their lifetime, price has remained a bottleneck for adoption by school districts.
The problem of the costs is being alleviated by federal and state programs, providing incentives for school districts to make the switch to electric buses. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program is providing up to $5 billion in support through 2022-2026 to replace diesel school buses with clean and zero-emission models. This year’s cycle will provide nearly $1 billion ($965 million) in funding. Selected applicants can receive up to $325,000 per electric school bus and charging infrastructure for priority school districts, and up to $170,000 for non-priority school districts, with a maximum of 50 school buses per applicant. Michigan also has its own program, the SEC 74 Clean School Bus Grant, which will provide $125 million for public school districts, where they can receive up to 70% of the cost of an electric school bus, charging station and infrastructure. Eligible districts that are classified as high need are prioritized in the Clean School Bus Grant. If your district is currently facing environmental concerns, low-income, or are a part of the indigenous population, your district can apply to have 90% of the total project costs covered.
Michigan already has 18 electric school buses on the road and 200 more on the way for districts across the state. Making the transition to an electric school bus fleet is the change needed for our state to meet our climate goal to reach 100% carbon neutrality by 2050. Ask your school district to make use of the record federal and state investments available to support this transition! This campaign toolkit has resources to help you get started.