Brandon’s Infrastructure Plan Includes A Lot Of Money For Electric Buses

It’s a nice little reward to the unions and helps save us from the climate crisis (scam)

U.S. School Buses May Never Be The Same Thanks to Biden’s Infrastructure Plan

st greta carAssembly line workers at the Thomas Built school bus factory in High Point, North Carolina are over the moon about the new infrastructure bill—specifically Title XI, Section 71101. Buried deep in the 2,702-page document approved by the House last week, that line item allocates federal funds to help localities purchase brand-new battery-powered school buses. That’s good news for Thomas Built, a subsidiary of German auto giant Daimler that controls nearly 40% of the North American school bus market. And for Chris Pratt, president of the local United Auto Workers chapter and a 22-year veteran welder at the Thomas Built plant, the legislation means one thing: more jobs. “We’re all excited,” Pratt says. “This is something huge for us.”

The school bus provision accounts for a comparatively tiny $5 billion within the $1.2 trillion bill now awaiting the President’s signature. But for workers like those in High Point, and campaigners advocating to get rid of diesel fumes on childrens’ commutes, this new federal funding represents a turning point in a surprisingly significant industry that will affect communities across the country.

The U.S.’s approximately 500,000 school buses comprise the country’s largest public transportation network, moving 26 million children between school and home every day. That’s more than four times the New York City subway’s daily ridership ,all picked up and dropped off at farm houses, suburban developments, and city apartment blocks from Idaho to Alaska. About 95% of those buses run on diesel, accounting for more than 5 million tons of yearly greenhouse gas emissions, and exposure to their exhaust fumes have been linked to lower test scores and worse respiratory health for children, whose developing lungs are more susceptible to irritation caused by the fine particulates bus engines generate. Inside those buses, especially idling in traffic or in pickup lots, children often breathe the most polluted air they experience all day.

Look, this is not necessarily a bad idea, because, school buses are pretty polluting, and I’m not referring to CO2. You know the smell when you drive behind one, and, that gets in the bus, too. And, after some more “climate justice” stuff, we see “as far as big, gas-guzzling vehicles go, electrifying school buses would be relatively easy, since they only need limited range, and have plenty of time to charge up during the school day or at night.”

But, see, then reality hits

(NJ.com) But a major hurdle for cash strapped school districts is the high price of going electric. A full-sized 40-foot electric school bus can cost $230,000 to $400,000 per vehicle, two to almost four times the cost of a $110,000 diesel-powered school bus.

Whoops?

The Four Most Common Drawbacks of Electric School Buses and What You Can Do About Them

…. (under #1, which is high purchase price)

After the initial purchase, districts can expect to save dividends on their operating costs through the life of the bus in the form of fuel savings and lower maintenance costs. In fact, although fueling and charging costs ebb and flow, recent reports are showing electricity can be around 60 percent lower than diesel costs. And, because electric school bus motors have fewer moving parts, maintenance is dramatically reduced, with the largest maintenance expense being battery replacement. On average, an electric school bus could save schools nearly $2,000 a year in fuel and $4,400 a year in maintenance costs.

Let’s do the math: it would take over 17 years to even out when comparing a diesel bus cost to an electric one that costs twice as much. You can do the math for 3 and 4 times. And the average lifespan of a school bus is 12 years.

But, then, you also have to spend the money on the charging infrastructure (drawback #2), driver and technician training (#3), and battery range (#4), which is around 100 miles. How will that work in hot and cold areas? And, then, don’t forget, you need all new firefighting material for EV fires. If the cost for the buses was even just 50% more, it’d be worth it. Joe has some of your tax money to spread around.

BTW, where’s all the energy for the buses coming from?

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17 Responses to “Brandon’s Infrastructure Plan Includes A Lot Of Money For Electric Buses”

  1. Hairy says:

    Teach the initial cost is high but the overall cost of ownership over the life of the bus will be lower
    Plus the kids will have cleaner air.capitalists should always consider the overall cost of ownership not just the upfront costs. Remember, that is why so many fleet operators want to buy the 2 new Ford electric pickups
    The Cost of all types of EVs are going down each year. Walmart and JB Hunt have both put down million dollar deposits on Teslas semi trucks do to start production next year The cost of a Tesla is the same as that of a diesel truck 150000 to 200000 but with much much lower operating costs. If Tesla can build at that price then school bus builders should be able to fo the same
    Teach have you driven one?

  2. Dana says:

    The warmunists want us to replace 62.5% of our electric generation capacity, the part provided by burning fossil fuels, in just 14 years:

    Building on and benefiting from that foundation, America’s 2030 target picks up the pace of emissions reductions in the United States, compared to historical levels, while supporting President Biden’s existing goals to create a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and net zero emissions economy by no later than 2050.

    I sure hope that the warmunists love them some nuclear plants, ’cause we’ll need a whole lot of them to make this work. Sadly, almost all of our nuclear power plants are approaching fifty years of age, and some of them will have to be replaced as well.

    But, as the warmunists want to replace 500,000 school buses with plug-in electrics, we’ll need a lot more total electric generation capacity to recharge the things. The guesstimates as to how much additional generation capacity we’ll need vary, but 35% to 40% are generally in the range of most of them.

    The math is fairly simple: if we need to replace 62.5% of our current generation capacity that comes from fossil fuels, and we need to increase our total generation capacity by 355 to 40%, we would need, in effect, to replace our entire current generation capacity with wind, solar, hydroelectric and nuclear generation plants!

    In 14 years.

    Anyone who believes that can be done is a major consumer of recreational pharmaceuticals!

  3. Elwood P. Dowd says:

    As always, con-munists (aka deniosaurs) overlook the societal benefits of reducing CO2 and diesel fumes. How does one value fewer cases of or fewer exacerbations of asthma?

    Con-munists conveniently deny that global warming is occurring or, for those who can no longer deny the science, deny that CO2 is the primary cause. That way they can deny that any benefits accrue by cutting pollution.

    • Jl says:

      Funny-“global warming is occurring..” Irrelevant-it would be the alleged effects that would matter

    • Dana says:

      Assuming that the sarcastic Mr Dowd was mocking my term “warmunists” by his word “con-munists (aka deniosaurs)”, I have to ask: with which part of my previous comment did he disagree?

      1 – Did he disagree with the point that, using Mr Biden’s proposals, we would have to replace 100% of our electric generating capacity in 14 years?
      2 – Did he disagree with the statistic that 62.5% of our current electric generating capacity comes from fossil fuels?
      3 – Did he disagree with the point that we would have to increase our total electric generating capacity by 35 to 40% to power all of the plug in electric vehicles he wants to see?

      I certainly do not “deny that any benefits accrue by cutting pollution,” but I also understand that the proposals of the warmunists are pie-in-the-sky. If anyone believes that we can “create a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035,” he has no flaming idea about industrial development, no concept of construction timetables or costs, and no understanding of economics.

  4. Professor Hale says:

    School busses are actually a pretty good application for electric vehicles.
    1. They don’t have to travel very far each trip.
    2. Their routes are highly predictable.
    3. They can recharge during the day for afternoon use.
    4. As long as they are redesigning school busses, which we no longer need at all because COVID proved children can be educated on the internet, Why not design them with the new normal standard of one seat every 6 feet, with 5 point seat belts.

    Electric school busses are another example of great ideas that come gust a little too late to make any sense at all. There is no reason for any school district to invest any money at all replacing their busses with anything.

    • CarolAnn says:

      My kids don’t use school buses. They are home schooled. At a time when we should be figuring how to encourage home schooling which the Covid hysteria has shown is preferable to building $300 million school bldgs., paying hundreds of thousands of teachers unnecessarily, same with school busses, books etc. with the added benefit of not allowing leftists to brainwash our kids they suddenly decide on all new unneeded high priced buses. Is Hunter now in the school bus business? That’s the only reason I can come up with for this silly idea. Seems Mr. Biden and the Democrats are chomping at the bit to pass out trillions of fiat dollars. They just can’t wait to collapse the economy I guess.

      I guess they think we’re too stupid to realize when they say “Build Back Better” the inference is they must destroy it first in order to build it back. They are taking a mighty stab at doing just that.

      • Elwood P. Dowd says:

        And we assume you’re teaching your children what you know.

        • Dana says:

          Which would mean, eventually, that the public school kids will be working for CarolAnn’s kids.

          • Elwood P. Dowd says:

            Which would mean, eventually, that CarolAnn’s kids will try to overthrow the United States of America.

          • CarolAnn says:

            Does Elwood P. Dowd ever make a comment that isn’t either nasty, insulting or anti American? Why on earth would I teach my kids to overthrow the United States of America? Can you explain that Elwood P. Dowd or is that just to show what a nasty person you are?

  5. Professor hale says:

    At a time when we should be figuring how to encourage home schooling….

    HAHAHAHAHA.

    The government doesn’t need to encourage anyone to homeschool. All they have to do is shut down the public system and it will automatically happen.

    Just like the government has complete control over the currency and still thinks they need to convince Americans to use the $1 coin instead of paper, when all they have to do is just stop issuing the paper.

    This is a process that is totally under the control of parents and government. Parents, like you, simply stop patronizing the government schools. Equally, the schools could stop accepting students and all become on-line learning centers.

    Don’t hold your breath. The public school teachers unions want to hold that sweet spot where they can continue to teach from home and your children still belong to them.

  6. CarolAnn says:

    I also would request Elwood P. Dowd keep my children out of his nasty political comments. My son is only 9 and my daughter Skylar only 7 and has autism. Neither are a threat to you and your attempt at projecting them as future terrorists and traitors is disgusting. Do you often attack the families of other commenters?

  7. david7134 says:

    Carolann,
    The guy you call Elwood is a true troll. He thinks that all of us are white supremacist. Of course he is not a white supremacist because he is a liberal and thinks all brown and black people are put upon and discriminated against. It is best to ignore him as I think he is nuts.

    Some time ago he doxed himself, intentionally so he could complain about how the web site is against him. But regardless of that he has given out enough information to check him out. He owns a pharmacy company that is listed and sells public stock. But he hates capitalism and goes on about how bad large companies are. He is here to try and destroy the web site as it tells the truth about the climate hoax.

    Recently he called one of the good commenters’ wife a whore. For no reason but it chased off the guy, I miss him.

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