State of Electrical College Buses — 2024 Version

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State of Electrical College Buses — 2024 Version


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Knowledge exhibits leaders and laggards for whole electrical faculty buses and mixed investments driving electrical faculty bus conversion.

By Danny Katz, Govt Director, CoPIRG Basis, U.S. PIRG Training Fund

Introduction

Every year, greater than 490,000 faculty buses shuttle kids forwards and backwards throughout the USA –to highschool, subject journeys, sporting occasions and extra. As most of those buses burn diesel gas, kids and drivers are uncovered to dangerous pollution which might be linked to bronchial asthma, different well being points and cognitive improvement issues.

Conversely, electrical faculty buses have zero tailpipe emissions, and due to this fact provide a cleaner, more healthy different to diesel buses. This report finds the variety of these zero-emission automobiles are rising at school districts across the nation, thanks partially to massive investments from Congress and states to transition to electrical faculty buses.

Federal Funding

As a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation, Congress approved as much as $5 billion to assist faculty districts transition to electrical faculty buses through the Clear College Bus Program (CSBP). This system gives grant and rebate funding alternatives to highschool districts, nonprofit faculty transportation associations and tribal organizations to interchange older, diesel buses with newer, electrical or low-emission fashions.

The primary spherical of funding functions beneath the brand new program solicited functions from Might via August 2022, and the EPA acquired roughly 2,000 functions requesting almost $4 billion for 12,000 buses. Because of the excessive demand, the company almost doubled its preliminary $500 million rebate pool. The awards for that spherical of funding are proven beneath.

2022 Clear College Bus Rebate Program Awards

Supply: EPA Clear College Bus Program Rebate Awards as of 8/15/24

In 2023, the EPA opened a second funding alternative via the 2023 Clear College Bus Grant Program, which offered grants reasonably than the earlier rebate. Winners had been chosen based mostly on their functions and prioritizing excessive want and rural faculty districts.

2023 Clear College Bus Grant Program Awards

Supply: EPA Clear College Bus Program Grant Awards as of 8/15/24

In September 2023 a 3rd spherical of funding opened within the type of a rebate. On Might twenty ninth, the EPA introduced awards for the 2023 rebates, proven within the desk beneath.

2023 Clear College Bus Rebate Program Awards

Supply: EPA Clear College Bus Program Rebate Awards as of 8/15/24

The Clear Heavy Responsibility Automobiles Grant Program

The Inflation Discount Act units apart $1 billion to fund the transition to zero-emission heavy obligation automobiles together with zero-emission Class 6 or Class 7 faculty buses through the Clear Heavy Responsibility Automobiles (CHDV) Grant Program. This program was open to different heavy obligation electrical automobiles along with Class 6 and seven faculty buses, together with dump vans, transit buses, supply vans and others. Functions for grants opened in April 2024, and the software interval closed in July 2024. Details about awards for the CHDV program might be posted on the EPA Clear Heavy Responsibility Car Program web site.

The EPA plans to inform grantees in November 2024 and award the grants in February 2025.

State Funding

Along with the EPA’s monumental funding within the transition to electrical faculty buses, states from throughout the nation have adopted laws of their very own to help faculty districts in changing older diesel buses with cleaner electrical ones.

Beneath is an inventory of the highest 10 states based mostly on the entire state and federal funding devoted to electrical faculty buses as of Might 29, 2024.*

*Knowledge from Atlas Public Coverage, correct via Might 29, 2024. Doesn’t embody {dollars} from the 2023 Clear College Bus Grant Program that had been categorized as a mixture of gas varieties.

An entire record of states ranked by public funding for electrical faculty buses may be present in Appendix A.

Variety of electric faculty buses by state

Utilizing knowledge from the World Assets Institute’s Electrical College Bus Dashboard, the next desk exhibits the standing of whole dedicated electrical faculty buses (ESBs), awarded ESBs, ordered ESBs, delivered or working ESBs, and the variety of college students using ESBs for every state. The World Assets Institute thought of electrical faculty buses “dedicated” whereas in any of the 4 phases of adoption: awarded, ordered, delivered or working — as long as “a faculty district or fleet operator has been awarded funding to buy it or makes a proper settlement to buy to buy it from a producer — not after they have solely expressed intent to amass one.”

On the time the info was collected in Might 2024, 48 states had electrical faculty buses delivered or in operation, with the exceptions of Wyoming and Idaho.

As of August 1, 2024, the highest states for dedicated electrical faculty buses are listed beneath:

Prime 10 states for dedicated electrical faculty buses as of 8/1/2024

Supply: Electrical College Bus Knowledge Dashboard, State ESB Adoption tab, World Assets Institute, knowledge accessed 8/1/24

States with the fewest dedicated electrical faculty buses included Delaware, Alaska and Wyoming. For an entire rating of dedicated electrical faculty buses by state, see Appendix B.

Suggestions

For college districts
  • Set a purpose to finish the acquisition of recent fossil gas buses and transition to a 100% zero-emission fleet. This will ship an essential market sign and assist deliver the varsity group collectively behind a single purpose.
  • Have an account on www.SAM.gov, which is a precursor to making use of for federal funds. It’s free to arrange an account and three further rounds of funding might be accessible via 2026.
  • Discover all doable financing choices:
  • Begin a dialog along with your utility firm as early as doable to see what sources they’ll present. Many utilities provide consulting companies to evaluate wiring and charging wants or rebates to scale back the prices of the wiring upgrades and infrastructure set up. As well as, work along with your utility to make sure a aggressive charging value system is in place.
For lawmakers
  • Dedicate {dollars} to zero-emission, electrical faculty buses
  • Establish and take away obstacles to incentivize utility firms to develop efficient and constant charges for electrical faculty bus charging, significantly round peak demand charges.
  • Help analysis and improvement in electrical faculty bus know-how, together with vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-building know-how.
For utilities
  • Proceed to extend renewable power capability on the grid, making electrical buses even cleaner.
  • Develop turnkey packages to help faculty districts in assessing their charging wants and offering incentives for charging infrastructure.
  • Financially help analysis and improvement in electrical faculty bus know-how, together with vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-building know-how.
  • Set up bulk buy financial savings packages to decrease prices for varsity districts.
  • Create pricing buildings that incentivize faculty districts to make use of vehicle-to-building and/or vehicle-to-grid alternatives from faculty buses
For folks and college students
  • Name in your faculty board to transform to electrical faculty buses by passing a decision to transition the fleet to 100% electrical buses and solely buy electrical faculty buses transferring ahead.
  • Share details about electrical faculty buses at PTA conferences and different academic boards to extend understanding of the advantages for college students and college districts. Arrange an occasion the place college students, dad and mom and the group can expertise using an electrical faculty bus.
  • Recruit volunteers to assist with grant writing for smaller faculty districts to compete for this cash.
Assets

Appendix A

Federal and State Funding for Electrical College Buses (5/29/24) – knowledge from Atlas Public Coverage
Rank State Complete Funding
1 California $684,092,571
2 New York $237,705,929
3 Illinois $223,820,312
4 Texas $184,792,970
5 Michigan $167,740,803
6 Florida $160,042,734
7 Georgia $159,529,307
8 Louisiana $144,141,664
9 Pennsylvania $143,859,350
10 Massachusetts $138,167,785
11 Wisconsin $127,931,889
12 North Carolina $106,486,639
13 Ohio $104,654,779
14 Virginia $96,688,873
15 Minnesota $93,502,994
16 Missouri $93,358,781
17 Mississippi $91,613,989
18 Oklahoma $79,774,605
19 Colorado $76,139,322
20 Arizona $75,376,503
21 South Carolina $73,935,000
22 Connecticut $73,264,508
23 Washington $69,208,805
24 Oregon $63,962,000
25 New Jersey $60,074,725
26 Indiana $59,783,065
27 Tennessee $57,629,250
28 Kansas $41,570,000
29 Kentucky $40,013,020
30 Arkansas $38,605,000
31 New Hampshire $34,865,000
32 Maryland $33,986,421
33 Montana $27,690,382
34 Nebraska $26,735,000
35 Alabama $25,242,558
36 Rhode Island $23,470,000
37 West Virginia $22,345,000
38 Maine $20,550,000
39 Iowa $20,500,000
40 North Dakota $19,442,375
41 Utah $19,155,660
42 Nevada $17,579,604
43 District of Columbia (D.C.) $14,450,000
44 Vermont $11,972,791
45 New Mexico $11,521,687
46 Idaho $8,295,000
47 Hawaii $4,844,660
48 South Dakota $3,127,857
49 Delaware $965,681
50 Alaska $802,465
51 Wyoming $0

Appendix B

Dedicated Electrical College Buses Ranked by State as of 8/1/24 

Rank State Dedicated ESBs Awarded ESBs Ordered ESBs Delivered or working ESBs College students using ESBs
1 California 3,107 726 1204 1,177 63,675
2 New York 764 566 80 118 4,853
3 Illinois 609 425 52 132 4,938
4 Florida 467 229 72 166 7,715
5 Pennsylvania 460 360 63 37 1,736
6 Maryland 439 53 50 336 30,254
7 Massachusetts 434 288 84 62 3,444
8 Texas 424 359 35 30 561
9 Virginia 385 83 66 236 16,174
10 Georgia 341 222 31 88 3,716
11 Michigan 315 188 67 60 2,153
12 New Jersey 306 167 2 137 5,553
13 Louisiana 283 259 4 20 1,359
14 North Carolina 263 178 14 71 4,002
15 Oregon 246 189 14 43 2,048
16 Missouri 229 159 14 56 2,227
17 Washington 222 128 15 79 2,498
18 Connecticut 211 166 0 45 2,444
19 South Carolina 195 181 0 14 832
20 Arizona 186 161 7 18 756
21 Mississippi 165 107 0 58 2,610
22 Ohio 165 150 9 6 285
23 Colorado 144 70 28 46 2,070
24 Wisconsin 141 117 4 20 745
25 Oklahoma 138 62 11 65 2,925
26 New Hampshire 117 113 0 4 200
27 Indiana 104 65 4 35 1,352
28 Kentucky 104 47 6 51 2,219
29 Minnesota 101 88 4 9 325
30 West Virginia 99 52 37 10 470
31 Tennessee 86 41 26 19 1,059
32 Montana 81 64 1 16 334
33 Rhode Island 79 45 24 10 561
34 Arkansas 78 72 2 4 196
35 Maine 78 36 20 22 1,133
36 Alabama 70 48 14 8 331
37 Kansas 64 50 0 14 638
38 Iowa 60 41 1 18 671
39 Nevada 57 25 10 22 1,094
40 Vermont 39 21 1 17 847
41 Utah 36 14 0 22 1,270
42 New Mexico 34 23 5 6 464
43 Hawaii 23 20 0 3 149
44 Idaho 23 10 13 0 0
45 Nebraska 23 19 0 4 33
46 North Dakota 18 11 0 7 130
47 South Dakota 8 2 0 6 132
48 Delaware 5 3 1 1 82
49 Alaska 2 0 1 1 82
50 Wyoming 0 0 0 0 0

Supply: Electrical College Bus Knowledge Dashboard, State ESB Adoption tab, World Assets Institute, knowledge accessed 8/1/24

Appendix C

Dedicated electrical faculty buses by state alphabetical as of 8/1/2024

State Dedicated ESBs Awarded ESBs Ordered ESBs Delivered or working ESBs College students using ESBs
Alabama 70 48 14 8 331
Alaska 2 0 1 1 82
Arizona 186 161 7 18 756
Arkansas 78 72 2 4 196
California 3,107 726 1204 1,177 63,675
Colorado 144 70 28 46 2,070
Connecticut 211 166 0 45 2,444
Delaware 5 3 1 1 82
Florida 467 229 72 166 7,715
Georgia 341 222 31 88 3,716
Hawaii 23 20 0 3 149
Idaho 23 10 13 0 0
Illinois 609 425 52 132 4,938
Indiana 104 65 4 35 1,352
Iowa 60 41 1 18 671
Kansas 64 50 0 14 638
Kentucky 104 47 6 51 2,219
Louisiana 283 259 4 20 1,359
Maine 78 36 20 22 1,133
Maryland 439 53 50 336 30,254
Massachusetts 434 288 84 62 3,444
Michigan 315 188 67 60 2,153
Minnesota 101 88 4 9 325
Mississippi 165 107 0 58 2,610
Missouri 229 159 14 56 2,227
Montana 81 64 1 16 334
Nebraska 23 19 0 4 33
Nevada 57 25 10 22 1,094
New Hampshire 117 113 0 4 200
New Jersey 306 167 2 137 5,553
New Mexico 34 23 5 6 464
New York 764 566 80 118 4,853
North Carolina 263 178 14 71 4,002
North Dakota 18 11 0 7 130
Ohio 165 150 9 6 285
Oklahoma 138 62 11 65 2,925
Oregon 246 189 14 43 2,048
Pennsylvania 460 360 63 37 1,736
Rhode Island 79 45 24 10 561
South Carolina 195 181 0 14 832
South Dakota 8 2 0 6 132
Tennessee 86 41 26 19 1,059
Texas 424 359 35 30 561
Utah 36 14 0 22 1,270
Vermont 39 21 1 17 847
Virginia 385 83 66 236 16,174
Washington 222 128 15 79 2,498
West Virginia 99 52 37 10 470
Wisconsin 141 117 4 20 745
Wyoming 0 0 0 0 0

Supply: Electrical College Bus Knowledge Dashboard, State ESB Adoption tab, World Assets Institute, knowledge accessed 8/1/24

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