Pirate's Cove

I’m shocked! Are you shocked?

Less than 40% of EV school buses purchased with Biden-era EPA grants have been delivered: ‘Taxpayer dollars vanished’

Less than 40% of electric school buses purchased under a multibillion-dollar Biden-era program have been delivered, new statistics released by the EPA Thursday reveal.

The slow pace of deliveries, coupled with concerns over the reliability of the EV buses, have prompted many school districts to pull out of the $5 billion “Clean School Bus Program,” for which some $2.7 billion in taxpayer funds has already been doled out — and almost exclusively on electric buses versus other alternative fuel vehicles.

“Instead of following Congress’ directives to effectively provide safe and reliable transportation for American school kids, the Biden-Harris administration rushed money out the door without enough thought or oversight,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.

I mean, seriously, this is government in a nutshell: rush the money out, it disappears into graft, waste, overspending, people’s pockets. It can pass through multiple NGOs, who all take their cut to pass it on, before finally being spent. Is this fully legal, or is there a way to prosecute for defrauding the government, even though it has essentially been normalized?

“This carelessness resulted in 90% of the money going to ‘buy’ electric school buses; yet over 5 years later, there are very few tangible buses to show for it,” Zeldin continued. “In essence, American taxpayer dollars vanished into thin air, and our children were left without school buses.”

Under the program guidelines, 50% of the federal money was meant for EV buses while the other half was intended for other types of “clean” transportation methods, like biofuel, liquified natural gas (LNG), compressed natural gas (CNG), hydrogen or propane vehicles.

And, for the most part, there are tons of problems with getting the buses delivered, and, for those that were delivered, keeping them running.

The EPA pegged the average cost per bus purchased through the Biden-era program at over $1 million.

New diesel and propane buses typically cost less than $200,000. The average EV school bus sells for about $300,000-$400,000.

I’ve mentioned this a few times. What a bargain!