$200M available to help school districts move to electric buses

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)—New York State School Districts and bus operators are required to transition their fossil fuel school buses to zero emission fleets by 2035. They are also required to only purchase zero emission school buses after 2027.

To help reach that goal, $200 million is now available for school districts on a first come, first serve basis for buses, chargers, and electrification plans. The money is in addition to $100 million dollars made available last year.

“We’ve seen interests from about half of the school districts in the state,” said Adam Ruder, Director for Clean Transportation at New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. “About 350 school districts in completing fleet electrification plans, which really, we see as the first step toward bringing electric school buses into a fleet.”

While Dave Christopher, the Executive Director of the New York Association for Pupil Transportation, appreciates more money being provided, he said it’s not enough.

“Just the bus is three times what a fossil fuel bus would cost,” said Christopher. “And that’s not counting the infrastructure, which is the wild card because every bus operation– every bus yard has different infrastructure needs.”

According to NYSERDA, there are currently about 100 zero emission school buses on the road.

“There are hundreds more on order or pledged either through our program or the federal U.S. EPA’s clean school bus program. When you combine all of those, it looks like we are going to be up closer to 1,000 buses before long,” said Ruder.

With the cost being challenge for some districts, the New York State School Board Association thinks the state should consider re-evaluating its deadline.

“Whether it is, you know, a waiver process or an exemption process that’s a little bit more applicable and broad or just a full push back of the deadline,” said Brian Fessler, Director of NYSSBA Governmental Relations.

Another round of state funding from the Environmental Bond Act is expected to become available in the future.

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