As a child, Nina Wimberley would call her mother from school almost daily complaining she wasn’t feeling well.
Whether she was picked up from school or not, she would often feel better as the day went on. Looking back, she blames the diesel school buses that took her to school and sat outside the building in the morning.
“I’ve always had really bad asthma and really bad allergies,” Wimberley told listeners during a roundtable discussion on the benefits of deploying electric school buses throughout Michigan.
“I’d tell my teacher, ‘Oh I have a really bad headache, oh, you know I can’t really participate,’ and she’ll have to call my mother and then by the time my mom comes, I’m feeling much better because I’m not in that area where you’re dropped off with all that air pollution.”
Wimberley was among a dozen participants who joined the electric school bus roundtable hosted by The Electrification Coalition and the World Resource Institute’s Electric School Bus Initiative this month. As a project coordinator for the Southeast Detroit Environmental Vision, she uses her background in environmental science to help educate on the health impacts of emissions and possible solutions to reducing greenhouse gases.
Environmental advocates call the move from diesel to electric school buses a critical climate action. Typical school buses are heavy-duty vehicles that emit large amounts of harmful diesel exhaust, which disproportionately contribute to poor air quality and accelerate the climate-warming greenhouse effect.
Meanwhile, electric school buses create zero tailpipe emissions and less than half the overall greenhouse gas emissions.
More than two dozen Michigan school districts have already used funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fund their transition to electric school buses. Nationally, more than $1.4 billion in public funding has been awarded, with another $400 million available under the 2023 EPA Clean School Bus Program.
Advocates say the move to electric can be costly up-front but has numerous long-term benefits. Here are some of those benefits, as explained during the May school bus roundtable.
Climate
Cory Connolly, climate and energy advisor for Michigan’s Office of Climate and Energy, said further adopting electric school buses will help to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Of the 480,000 school buses nationwide, about 1% were electric last year. By converting all of buses to electric, advocates sat there’s potential to reduce greenhouse gases by 8 million tons per year.
In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has set a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, and to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030. Replacing diesel buses with electric vehicles is part of that plan, with a goal of having 100% of new bus purchases be electric by 2030.
Health
Pollution from diesel fumes has been linked to asthma and other health conditions.
“Diesel exhaust pollution presents real health and development dangers to our young people, to students, drivers, teachers, and the communities that those buses are in,” said U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn. “We know that diesel air pollution is linked to asthma and other conditions that harm young people’s health.”
Advocates who were highlighting the health benefits of electric school buses noted a 2022 study that found concentrations of air pollutants on diesel buses were as much as 5-10 times higher than average levels.
They also referenced a 2011 study in Washington, which found schools that replaced their diesel buses saw reductions in doctor visits for asthma and pneumonia.
Education
It would make sense that student’s benefit from missing fewer days due to being sick. One study found recipients of funding for clean school buses saw higher school attendance equivalent to six additional students per day.
There has also been evidence of a link between clean school buses and higher test scores. A 2019 study evaluating Georgia schools that moved toward electric buses found improvements in both academic scores and aerobic capacity.
Equity
Low-income populations, minorities, and children living in inner cities experience more emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths due to asthma than the general public, according to the CDC.
It’s likely not a coincidence, advocates noted, that low-income students are more likely to take the bus to school (70%) than non-low-income students (45%).
Those disparities are in-part why state and federal leaders have said they’re prioritizing communities that have been underserved and/or overburdened by pollution. About 99% of selected districts for the latest series of grants are those serving low-income, rural or Tribal students.
Economy
Electric school buses have higher up-front costs than diesel buses. Dean Transportation previously estimated that most electric school buses are in the $400,000 range, compared to around $100,000 for their diesel counterparts.
But advocates say the electric buses can be the cheaper option over the life of the vehicle due to factors including lower fuel and maintenance costs, and possible revenue streams to counter expenses.
“The up-front cost of school buses will continue to decline, as will cost for charging infrastructure, and we know that school buses have the opportunity to reduce fueling and maintenance costs significantly over the lifetime,” Connolly said.
Some of those costs can be offset by the current federal grant and rebate opportunities, as well as potential vehicle-to-grid revenue. That means the buses, when not in use, could be used for energy storage and emergency power and schools could be compensated for those services.
Electric buses in Michigan
Michigan’s first electric school buses hit the road in 2019, with 17 buses purchased through a pilot program and dispersed between Zeeland, Ann Arbor, Gaylord, Kalamazoo, Oxford, Roseville and Three Rivers public schools.
In 2022, the EPA awarded $54 million in rebates to cover around 138 EV buses across 25 school districts across the state. Michigan received the second-most rebates, representing almost 6% of the $965 million in national funding.
Michigan school districts selected to receive EV bus rebates include:
- Pontiac City School District
- Jackson Public Schools
- Dearborn City School District
- Ypsilanti Community Schools
- Homer Community Schools
- Ubly Community Schools
- Beecher Community School District
- Britton Deerfield Schools
- Chesaning Union Schools
- Pellston Public Schools
- Harbor Beach Community Schools
- Cassopolis Public Schools
- Hopkins Public Schools
- Bessemer Area School District
- L’Anse Area Schools
- Alcona Community Schools
- Mayville Community School District
- Pentwater Public School District
- Sand Creek Community Schools
- Ojibwe Charter School
- Armada Area Schools
- Au Gres-Sims School District
- Unionville-Sebewaling Area School District
However, there was more interest. Only about 30% of applications were selected for the program.
The application period for the next wave of clean school bus grants is open until the end of the day Aug. 22. Selected districts will be notified between November 2023 and January 2024, with awards likely to go out shortly thereafter.
Questions about the program can be emailed to cleanschoolbus@epa.gov, with a subject line of “Clean School Bus NOGO Question.”
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