NJ Spotlight News
NJ school districts want more funding for electric buses
Clip: 11/29/2023 | 4m 12sVideo has Closed Captions
State lawmakers are looking to set aside $15 million for purchases statewide
School districts across New Jersey are looking to update the way students get to class, by replacing old diesel school buses with new electric models. Officials said the change allows cleaner air for students to breathe, cuts climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, and lowers maintenance costs for the bus fleet.
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NJ Spotlight News is a local public television program presented by THIRTEEN PBS
NJ Spotlight News
NJ school districts want more funding for electric buses
Clip: 11/29/2023 | 4m 12sVideo has Closed Captions
School districts across New Jersey are looking to update the way students get to class, by replacing old diesel school buses with new electric models. Officials said the change allows cleaner air for students to breathe, cuts climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, and lowers maintenance costs for the bus fleet.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipThe push to go electric isn't just targeted for personal vehicles.
State environmental leaders also want school districts to tap into federal and state funding to electrify their bus fleets.
They argue diesel school busses pump pollution into the air and expose students to the harmful fumes.
There's already a couple hundred electric busses on the roads in New Jersey.
But as Ted Goldberg reports, there's a lot of work and money needed to phase out the 10,000 existing school busses in the state.
Electric school busses could soon be coming to a district near you.
Advocates say it's a win for the environment and for the lungs of anybody who rides them.
We do not want the next generation New Jersey schoolchildren to be breathing in dirty diesel fumes.
It's bad for their lungs and an even impact school performance.
Kids are breathing this in.
The neighborhoods are breathing the same.
I was in elementary school in the sixties, so I remember the old school busses that did spew out the diesel fuel and the exhaust.
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora was one of the speakers at an informational luncheon aimed at people interested in turning their fleet of diesel powered school busses into electric.
This cuts down on it by using electrical vehicles.
And so we're excited about the opportunity to apply for replacement of up to 200 or more school busses in the city of Trenton.
It's the coming thing, I guess, and everybody's looking to see what we can do to eliminate diesel fumes.
Heather Van Mater oversees more than 40 school busses for the Hopewell Valley Regional School District.
She's learning more about state and federal grants to help pay for those busses, which can run more than $400,000 a pop.
School busses are about one and a half to two times as expensive as regular busses.
Plus the expense of putting in the charging stations.
We're running tight right now with our budget So that added money is not feasible for us.
It could become more feasible thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law, which allocates money for electric and clean fuel school busses the way it's looking.
It'll be about 1 billion a year, hoping to use the 5 billion up in five years.
We need grants that are flexible within the contracting laws that New Jersey has, despite the price tag.
EPA employee Lily Black says electric school busses are starting to spread.
We're seeing them everywhere from dense metropolitan areas like Newark, Trenton, but then also kind of more rural out in Montana, Wyoming.
Rachel Lane works for student transportation of America, the second largest private bus contractor in the country.
She says making electric school busses widespread poses a few challenges beyond just dollars and cents.
There's not a one size fits all solution.
It's different from site to site because it depends on how many busses you're charging, what the route characteristics of the busses are what your utility rate book is, and how you're trying to minimize your power consumption and your power costs.
We're hoping to turn over the entire fleet by 2035.
That's our goal.
The question is, is there are there going to be funds?
It's very optimistic.
But, you know, it's the same goal that New Jersey Transit has for their electric busses.
Governor Phil Murphy recently conditionally vetoed a bill that would give $15 million to school districts for these busses.
Environment N.J. Director Doug O'Malley says he's confident that lawmakers will fix the bill and help make it a law during the lame duck session.
The governor did a conditional veto to ensure that the funding that was being used was FY24 dollars.
So it was kind of a it's a small change.
It's a very important one.
And we hope the legislature moves on this conditional veto next month.
And so this program can get up and rolling by early.
24.
New Jersey isn't alone in growing electric school busses.
Earlier today, New York State announced a $100 million environmental bond for busses running on electricity and clean fuel in Trenton.
I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News
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NJ Spotlight News is a local public television program presented by THIRTEEN PBS