well the state isn't just embracing the use of electric vehicles for commuters and businesses it's also pushing a three-year program to test them out for our schools electric school buses are being rolled out in one Central Jersey district seeing how a cleaner quieter ride will improve the environment and our health Ted Goldberg reports East Brunswick Public Schools has a long history of excellence in academics Athletics in the Arts but I'm especially proud that we remain Visionary and always looking to adopt innovation in prudent ways East Brunswick is about two years from having electric school buses as part of its Fleet the new buses look pretty similar to your standard diesel-powered bus except for the big battery and the lack of an exhaust pipe belching out diesel smoke the most vulnerable population in many ways are the school children that take diesel buses each and every day across New Jersey and this should be the generation that this should be the last generation that has a legacy of being stuck on diesel school buses that emit toxic fumes I am excited for my son to get to school at some point and be able to hop on an electric school bus and and not ever had to deal with diesel emissions this is going to be the first generation of children who are going to experience a a bus with no diesel fumes last summer State lawmakers approved a bill authorizing the dep to spend 45 million dollars over three years to create a program that introduces electric school buses and charging infrastructure assemblyman Sterly Stanley says it's an investment in the future a climate change is happening climate change is here and we need to fight and we need to fight for the future the future of our children everybody knows that this is not the future it should be the present we have to put this in place we have to protect our environment it's really just been an honor to be part of this state and federal funds have led to the order of about 200 electric buses so far a small portion of New Jersey's estimated 15 thousand buses that bring kids to school every day Senator Patrick dygnan says the point of the pilot program is to figure out the Kinks before electric school buses become more widespread now this particular program is being put in place so that we can really find out get facts rather than hypothesize get faxes to exactly how it's working if it's working efficiently if there's any challenges grant funding is a great way to kick-start adoption of electric school buses and address those cost barriers the cost barriers are significant a new electric School Bus costs about four hundred thousand dollars more than twice the cost of your typical diesel bus it takes about a decade for districts to break even on their investment but East Brunswick mayor Brad Cohen says it's worth the wait using innovation in a way that helps preserve the environment produces jobs and most importantly since we're standing here right in front of a elementary school teaches our children what it's like to be environmentally sensitive and be concerned about the Earth that they're going to inherit someday when we are all long gone as part of the law half of the new buses will go to low-income Urban or environmental justice community fees places that have been adversely affected by pollution in East Brunswick I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news