Salt Lake leads out with electric school buses
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
More students than ever are headed to class on an electric school bus this fall as school districts race to take advantage of unprecedented government funding to replace their diesel fleets.
The intrigue: Salt Lake City School District has been held up as a model for transitioning to electric buses — with an eye to equity.
Why it matters: Exhaust from diesel buses is linked to serious health and development conditions for children, especially in low-income communities.
- The growing electric bus movement, fueled by a plethora of state and federal incentives, promises to reduce tailpipe emissions and improve kids' health, too.
- Electric school buses can also act as giant batteries to store surplus energy when not in use. That means cash-strapped districts can earn money from their parked buses by selling power back to the grid during times of peak demand.
Zoom in: Salt Lake City used a combination of state and federal funding to buy 12 electric buses, deployed mostly in Rose Park.
- The neighborhood is less affluent and suffers disproportionately from poor air quality.
The latest: More Salt Lake City kids need transportation following the closure of four elementary schools this fall.
Zoom out: Almost 235,000 U.S. students currently ride electric school buses, according to the World Resources Institute, whose Electric School Bus Initiative closely tracks adoption rates.
- That's still a tiny fraction of the 21 million kids who take the bus to school in the U.S. each day.
State of play: Congress set aside $5 billion over five years to replace diesel-burning school buses under the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
- The Clean School Bus Program, administered by the EPA, prioritizes school districts in low-income, rural and Tribal communities.
- So far, the EPA has spent $2.8 billion to fund more than 8,000 electric school buses.
Follow the money: Some local utilities also provide financial incentives to support school bus electrification.
- A $40,000 rebate for electric commercial vehicles, including school buses, was included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Yes, but: The arrival of electric buses has stirred controversy in some communities, where EVs have been politicized.
The big picture: New technology often starts with wealthy early adopters.
- But in this case, the cleanest, most advanced school buses in America are being deployed primarily in districts with low-income households in non-white neighborhoods, per WRI.