Electric school buses under a program overseen by Kamala Harris cost American taxpayers more than $1 million each, The Washington Free Beacon reported July 29.
Overall, US President Joe Biden’s plan to replace school buses with electric buses included spending $5 billion. However, as part of the first tranche, $1 billion was allocated two years ago for the purchase of hundreds of electric buses.
Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s Clean School Bus Program used nearly $1 billion in federal funding to 389 school districts in all 50 states to help deliver 2,463 electric buses.
However, only 27 of these districts reported to the EPA that electric buses had been purchased and diesel buses had been retired from service. A total of 60 battery-powered or low-emission propane-powered school buses were purchased. Another 55 counties withdrew from the program due to various issues.
Following Harris’ initial announcement, the agency revealed a $1 billion tranche of grants for 280 school districts and a second $900 million tranche for 530 additional districts. None of these 530 districts purchased electric buses through the Clean School Bus program.
Note that the money will most likely return to the agency, but the failure of the transition to electric buses under Harris’s watch is obvious, which the right-wing website did not stop writing about.
In short, the Clean School Bus program was created as part of the 2021 infrastructure bill, which allocated $5 billion to the Environmental Protection Agency to distribute grants for the purchase of electric buses over five years.
Most program crashes are caused by “Coordination problems with power grid companies, sometimes costly and time-consuming electrical infrastructure upgrades to install [оборудования для электромобилей]or problems with the maintenance and autonomy of electric buses”Cold weather, technological issues and rising infrastructure costs were also cited as reasons counties abandoned the program.
In August 2023, Proterra Inc., an American electric vehicle company that the Biden administration has repeatedly praised as an opportunity to ensure American dominance in electric vehicles globally, filed for bankruptcy, citing “Market and macroeconomic headwinds”.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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