Superintendents cite charging infrastructure gaps, long routes and high costs as barriers to compliance
By Brenne Sheehan
When it comes to Gov. Kathy Hochul administration’s electric bus mandate, which requires all schools in New York to electrify their bus fleets by 2035, Adirondack school superintendents feel that the decision was made without much consideration for their districts.
Last week, Hochul announced an additional $200 million in funding available to school districts from the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022. Districts with a higher percentage of low-income residents are given higher priority for funding, which can be used to purchase buses and/or the related infrastructure needed to charge them. The funding is available on a first-come, first-served basis. To help school districts manage the transition, the state has created a guidebook.
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Misgivings remain
However, despite the incentives and technical assistance available, many Adirondacks school leaders question how electric buses will fit into their daily operations.
Minerva Superintendent Candice Husson, whose district operates only two buses, worries they won’t hold a charge for long trips across the park for sports games — on top of bringing students home.
With long bus routes that carry students over rough terrain in the winter in the third largest state district by area, Long Lake Superintendent and Principal Camille Harrelson agrees.
“Because we’re a merged sports team, if we pick up our kids, go to Indian Lake to pick up those kids, and then travel to Chazy for a game, our buses can’t make it back on an electrical charge. The area itself is just too great and too drastic.”
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On top of the geographical distances required to move students and sports teams, Harrelson says her district can’t afford to charge or logistically implement electric buses.
“There’s no infrastructure for electric buses in this area. The electric companies don’t have what they need to even support us to make that happen,” she said.
Early adopters
According to state data, since the program’s launch in 2022, 88 school districts have applied for funds to purchase 529 buses, which includes 50 priority school districts accounting for 406 buses. Lake George Central School District was one of those, buying an electric bus in April — at a lower cost than a new diesel model thanks to a state grant. However, Superintendent John Lutheringer remains uncertain about its performance and recognizes the potential challenges the mandate poses for districts with much larger service areas, like Saranac Lake, which spans 685 square miles.
“We are excited about our bus. There are so many issues with what the mandate is saying, though,” Luthringer said. “School districts aren’t going to be able to afford a nearly $500,000 bus.”
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For more on this issue, look back at our previous reporting:
- Adirondacks to see electric school buses by 2035 amid push from state
- Funding questions come with electric school bus mandate
Photo at top: An electric school bus engine compartment displays the mechanical systems that power student transportation. Photo by Zach Matson
Mandated electric school buses all over NY. Another wasteful government demand that is quite impractical and very expensive. Sure, the electric bus purchased by Lake George was “cheaper” than the diesel alternative, after the state provided their tax payer funded kick back to the school district to purchase it. The electric buses lack the range necessary to be practical in the large Adirondack districts. That range decreases in cold weather as well. Our power grid is stretched as it is, and suffers many outages throughout the year. Another Kathy Hochul brainchild that wastes tax payer money in a state that desperately needs to reduce tax burdens on its citizens.
This was Cuomo’s initiative, not Hochul’s. And our power grid doesn’t suffer may outages throughout the year. But, it’s clear that rural districts need some form of relief from the mandate, at least until the technology improves and costs decrease. Please understand that we humans are not smart enough to create the perfect path to a low-carbon economy, so don’t be too harsh on folks doing their best to tackle the climate issue.
The NYS electric school bus mandate was passed into law in 2022. This mandate requires all new school buses purchased by New York school districts to be zero-emission (electric) starting in 2027, and for the entire fleet to be electric by 2035, according to NYSERDA. Governor Kathy Hochul of New York passed the mandate for electric school buses, according to the New York State Senate.
It may have been Cuomo’s initiative but Hochul continues it. All this talk about funding is available, is nonsense, it’s taxpayer money! The Adirondacks don’t need electric buses, the expense is to much for their small school districts. Expensive buses aren’t going to solve the climate crisis.
Even assuming without definitive proof that there is a ” climate” crisis.
Electric school buses have a range of 100 – 200 miles with some up to 300 miles. The average school bus route in the Adirondack Park, and New York State in general, is around 80 miles per day. So electric school buses will work for schools across the state for their daily school day route. However, the initial cost of an electric school bus is significantly higher than a traditional diesel bus, typically ranging from $300,000 to $400,000, compared to $125,000 to $150,000 for diesel buses. Beyond the bus itself, there are additional costs for infrastructure like charging stations, which can add up to $140,000, and upgrades to electrical systems. So the working stiff will have to pony up two to three times (or more)the cost to purchase one bus because the government says so.
Electric vehicles are not for everyone and every application. Mandates like this are short sighted. It would have been better to offer incentives rather than mandates– like tax credits– although I am really against incentives also because I really think a technology should compete fairly in a truly free market (not what we have). My wife and I love our Tesla Model 3 and have driven it across the country at least 10 times in the past 5 years– however we realize it does have its limitations. The thought of a battery cold soaking while at a football game for several hours in the rural Adirondacks would be a literal non starter for us. There are ways to accommodate this new tech, but mandates like this don’t allow for situations which could quickly become emergencies because the tech simply isn’t mature enough. Early adopters do so because they can overcome a challenge on an individual basis, and we learn from them. But a school district should NEVER be an early adopter of unproven tech like this.
A giant step in the right direction is hybrid power, which are available. Battery for short routes and then a diesel/gas engine kicks in. Rare occasions such as long hauls to far away sport events can then happen. Once the newer solid state batteries are produced the electric mileage will be improved and can readily replace the current batteries. Otherwise a mandate is not practical, since each town has different needs and infrastructure.