Cheers & Jeers: Electric buses; climate woes
The Columbian
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Cheers: To electric school buses. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has proposed the Clean School Bus Act to help school districts transition from diesel buses to electric. The bill would provide $1 billion over five years to cover expenses that many districts cannot afford on their own. “I can think of no better time to talk about how critical it is that we finally make an investment in clean energy,” Murray said.
Vancouver Public Schools last year acquired three electric buses through a grant from the state Department of Ecology, and Murray has pointed to the district in promoting her bill. With electric buses costing up to $400,000 each, compared with about $140,000 for a diesel one, the transition is slow; district officials estimate that each bus will save $5,000 to $10,000 a year in fuel costs. Despite the price tag, working to eliminate carbon emissions from the nation’s 500,000 school buses is a wise investment.