By Bill Beren • Chair, Transportation Committee
It finally happened! Almost five years from when the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club started its electric school bus campaign, the Electric School Bus Program is a reality!
Originally, Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill in August of 2022, but the final version of that bill failed to allocate the money to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to implement the grant program. This past June, the legislature passed a bill to allocate the first year’s funding of $15 million dollars, but in another drafting error, allocated the funds from fiscal year (FY) 2023, which ended on June 30. The governor then issued a conditional veto to have the funds allocated from FY 2024, and at the last legislative session in 2023, both houses did pass the new appropriations bill and the governor signed it into law on December 21.
The final version of the bill included many amendments that were drafted by the Transportation Committee, including raising the amount of funding from $10 million to $45 million, setting minimum standards for buses to qualify, and requiring that the DEP evaluate the actual performance of the buses purchased in order to develop an expanded procurement process to replace the entire state fleet of 10,000 standard-size diesel school buses.
The DEP formally announced the grant program on January 31. Both school districts that own their own buses and school bus contractors are eligible to apply, but contractors must coordinate with a specified school or district when submitting their proposals.
Applicants can apply for a minimum of two and a maximum of 16 electric buses. Only Class C or D buses (minimum seating capacity of 44) are eligible, and applicants are not required to scrap a diesel bus. However, applicants who state that they will scrap a diesel bus will be awarded additional points when evaluating the proposals.
Mirroring the federal grant programs, and in contrast to prior grants issued under the Volkswagen settlement and Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative funding, the DEP is now awarding a standard amount per bus, depending on whether the district is located in an overburdened community, defined by a combination of high pollution and poverty.
The new program will also include incentives for applicants to use innovative procurement procedures, such as leasing instead of buying outright to make purchasing an electric school bus more affordable. The stored energy in the buses’ batteries can be used to power electrical loads in school buildings when the buses are not in service.
Applications for the grants are now being accepted through Friday, May 17. More information can be obtained by doing an online search for “NJDEP Stop the Soot Electric School Bus Grant Program.”