By Tom Johnson NJ Spotlight
As the state moves to electrify its transportation sector, one significant segment remains largely left out — the more than 15,000 buses transporting kids to and from New Jersey schools each day.
Few students, if any, make that trip on electric school buses, though some communities have taken steps to phase out diesel-fueled buses and switch to zero-emission vehicles now in use in 33 other states. Only 1,439 electric school buses are now in use, less than 1% of all school buses on the road now.
Clean-energy advocates, however, are pushing to change that dynamic, urging state officials to step up funding and incentives to get students out of buses that expose them and surrounding communities to unhealthy pollutants caused by the combustion of diesel engines.
At a day-long webinar, sponsored by the Electrification Coalition and World Resources Institute, various speakers made a case for widespread deployment of electric school buses in New Jersey.
Besides improving public health and accelerating the decarbonization of the transportation sector, that step could reduce operating expenses for school districts, lead to cleaner air and create new jobs, according to Justin Balik of WRI.
The biggest hurdle to converting diesel buses to zero-emission vehicles is the higher upfront cost of the latter. Electric school buses can cost upward of $300,000, triple the cost of the more conventional diesel bus, said James Woods of First Student, a company that is one of the largest providers of transportation in North America.
“The key barriers are financial — first and foremost,’’ agreed Peg Hanna, assistant director of the Division of Air Quality in the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Still, First Student said it hopes to convert 20,000 buses to electric by 2030, Woods said. Other electric-bus suppliers were also bullish about prospects for converting the nation’s fleet of nearly 500,000 school buses to electric buses.
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