Albert Gore is executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association.
The yellow school bus is not just an iconic symbol of American life, it is also an essential service that transports more than 21 million children to school each day. Unfortunately, the diesel-fueled buses that provide this service also harm the health of those very same children, along with bus drivers, school staff and surrounding communities. Diesel exhaust harms children’s health and has negative effects on asthma incidence, respiratory health and even test scores.
The EPA’s Clean School Bus Program, created by the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021, is working to address this by providing $5 billion to public school districts and tribal organizations to purchase zero emission (electric) and clean (natural gas and propane-powered) school buses. By replacing diesel bus fleets, electric school buses are helping build a cleaner, healthier future for our children. This effort is already getting buses on the road — the Clean School Bus Program has played a key role in supporting the purchase of more than 8,000 electric school buses to date, with funding for 3,100 more buses in 450+ school districts around the country announced May 29.
Still, fossil fuel groups continue to question the benefits of school bus electrification. So let’s address these concerns head-on.
Electric school buses result in lower emissions, even in areas of the grid with high fossil fuel use
Fuel interest groups like to question the emissions benefits of electric school buses, but ignore three key points: the difference between indirect and local emissions, the efficiency of electric vehicles and continued investment in the grid.
Electric school buses create 75% less lifetime nitrous oxide emissions, a primary contributor to the creation of smog, than both diesel and propane school buses. Smog has wide-ranging negative impacts on public health, including on asthma and respiratory health in children. In fact, a recent study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that each individual electric bus can provide up to $247,600 in climate and health benefits compared to diesel buses. Even propane and natural gas school buses, two supposedly cleaner alternatives, have high levels of lifetime nitrous oxide emissions and, similar to diesel, emit them through local tailpipe emissions in the vicinity of children and schools, increasing public harm to learning and children’s respiratory health significantly. The localized emissions from electric school buses are thus zero compared to all other alternatives.
Critics have also claimed that electricity from the U.S. grid has a higher carbon intensity per unit of energy than natural gas, and even diesel. Such figures are misleading as they fail to account for differences in fuel efficiencies between electric school buses and other alternatives.
This is because much of the energy produced by liquid fuels is lost to heat, making electricity the clear winner when factoring in vehicle efficiencies and emissions per mile. For example, a propane school bus gets approximately 4-4.7 miles per gallon, equating to 21-25 megajoules/mile; compared to an electric school bus that has an efficiency of 1.5 kWh/mile equating to 5.4 MJ/mile.
This is true even for some renewable propane, which is both more costly than regular propane and in much shorter supply. Electric school buses are the climate-friendlier option overall — beyond the obvious benefit of zero tailpipe emissions in the vicinity of children and schools — which cannot be said of other fuels, even “clean” ones.
But even carbon intensity scores for electricity fail to account for future upgrades to the grid. With grid emissions projected to fall by almost 50% by 2035, the lifetime emissions for an electric school bus with a 12-year lifespan will be 25% lower than current carbon intensity values indicate. Fleet managers and school districts can lower emissions even further by strategically charging buses during peak renewable hours, which can be easily implemented given school buses’ predictable schedules and total drive time of less than six hours per day.
Electric school buses have lower total cost of ownership than alternatives
Electric school buses are more affordable to own and operate, due to lower fueling and maintenance costs. The World Resources Institute estimates that with the help of the Clean School Bus program, an electric school bus’ total cost of ownership is about half that of diesel-burning buses. Vehicle operators can also unlock value by using buses for vehicle-to-grid applications when not in service, or repurposing the vehicles’ batteries for permanent battery storage once buses are retired. This allows owners to recoup all or part of the upfront cost over the course of the vehicle’s lifetime.
Electric school buses are still relatively nascent; gaps in upfront purchase price are quickly closing as manufacturers achieve economies of scale and other technological improvements. At the same time, focusing on top-line sticker prices obscures the total cost of ownership of electric school buses, as well as their end-of-life value. As public entities, school districts are acting as good stewards of public funds by transitioning to electric.
The grid is improving and will be ready for more electric school buses
Concerns over grid integration should be taken seriously, and it is true that long timelines for grid connection and charger construction are currently limiting the growth and speed of electric school bus adoption. But this is a known challenge that is being addressed. EPA’s Clean School Bus Program is encouraging applicants to work directly with local electricity providers to achieve more certainty during the pre-planning process, shortening wait times and creating more long-term certainty for utilities and fleet managers. Meanwhile, stakeholders at every level are working together, from electricity providers to charging companies to manufacturers, to build the infrastructure needed to facilitate electrification.
Referencing just current grid capacity when planning for the future underestimates the power of innovation and future pace of change. We will not achieve 100% EV sales overnight. But electricity providers are actively planning for 100% EVs and have a history of meeting growing electricity demand whether that be the popularization of the refrigerator or in-home air conditioning.
Our children stand to benefit immensely from electric school buses
The Clean School Bus Program is a historic investment in our nation’s children and school systems. School districts are actively applying for funding, and are overwhelmingly pursuing electric school buses over other alternatives. They have done the math and are seeing how the benefits of electrification far outweigh the costs.
Electric school buses are not the default replacement of choice, but they are the preferred one. Children in communities all around the country stand to benefit immensely as a result.
