By Bill Beren • Transportation Committee Chair
Electric School Buses
In October, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded $965 million nationwide for electric and low-polluting school buses under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Just two NJ districts received funding; these were the Atlantic County Special Services and Bridgeton City School districts. Nationwide, the awards were heavily weighted to rural districts. The NJ Chapter will be working with our national allies to encourage the EPA to take pollution levels as well as poverty levels into account when awarding the next tranche of grants.
Building on this summer’s passage of A1282/S759 (The Electric School Bus Program Act), which funds electric school buses with $45 million over three years, the Chapter exhibited at the NJ School Boards Association Annual Workshop, held October 24-26 at the Atlantic City Convention Center.
The Chapter was represented by volunteer members of the Transportation Committee, and we distributed a number of publications, such as our well-received “NJ Buyers’ Guide to Electric School Buses,” a summary of the Electric School Bus Program Act, and reprints of online articles on electric school bus charging systems and using solar energy to power electric school buses. These and more are available on our electric school bus web page.
Also on this web page is a link to our updated electric school bus video, which includes new information about federal and state grant programs.
NJ Transit Electric Buses
In October, NJ Transit put their first electric transit bus into service in Camden. NJ Transit has purchased eight electric transit buses and is looking to this pioneering fleet to guide the expansion of electric bus transit statewide. The agency also received a $44 million grant from the federal government to build a new Union City garage for electric buses.
Under a state law passed in 2021, NJ Transit is committed to making 10% of its bus purchases fully electric by the end of 2024; 50% by the end of 2026; and 100% by 2032.
Passenger Vehicles and Trucks
New Jersey is receiving $104 million over five years from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to build highway charging stations for cars and trucks. At press deadline, no information was available on the timing or amount of the grant money.
In a long-awaited announcement, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection published its draft Advanced Clean Truck Rule (ACT) on Nov. 7. This would formally adopt the California standard for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles over 8,500 pounds. Although California’s standard will take effect starting in 2024, New Jersey’s ACT rule would begin to take effect in model year 2027. In addition to requiring a percentage of new trucks to be zero-emission vehicles, it would establish much tighter standards for nitrogen oxides and particulate emissions from gasoline and diesel vehicles, mandate on-board diagnostic equipment to alert fleet owners if the emission standards are exceeded, and require that all medium- and heavy-duty vehicles undergo independent emission testing.
Resources
Electric School Bus Campaign: bit.ly/3fLtrXF
Camden’s Electric Bus: bit.ly/3UFTLkM