A wildly delusional Associated Press (AP) Global Warming propaganda piece appeared in The Washington Times recently.
The headline was unintentionally funny: "Electric School Buses Finally make Headway, but Hurdles Still Stand."
(Why the Washington Times — which bills itself as a conservative paper — prints AP stories purportedly subsidized by "Green" lobby groups is a topic that will have to wait until sometime in the future.)
The "headway" the battery buses are making is strictly in the form of purchase orders.
Any "headway" on the roadway is fleeting and fraught with suspense.
Here is a brief list of the problems battery buses are having in the real world, courtesy of Wirepoints.org.:
—"In Maine, the Department of Education is advising all Lion Electric Co. electric school buses be parked until further inspections are done. Maine communities Winthrop, Vinalhaven and Yarmouth all had major problems last fall with school E-buses made by Lion.
—"In New York, Government Technology reported last week that 20 out of 100 electric school buses are down on any given day, due to problems with the buses or with their charging devices. In Bethlehem, New York, five of the seven electric buses purchased three years ago have been off the road in recent weeks.
—"In Ann Arbor, Michigan, E-buses have had 'a lot of downtime and performance issues' and aren’t 'fully on the road,'" despite the fact that they are "approximately five times more expensive than regular buses," according to the school district’s environmental sustainability director. The infrastructure upgrades required to use the buses, meanwhile, were "originally estimated to be only about $50,000" but "ended up being more like $200,000. . . . I have a number of colleagues in different states who are facing similar challenges," she said.
E–bus problems have become global in scope.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) found on Prince Edward Island, "Three years ago, the P.E.I. government rolled out its new electric school buses with much fanfare.
"But school bus drivers say the buses are plagued with problems, leaving sometimes 16 to 18 of the buses in the shop at any one time."
And when a battery school bus breaks down on the highway the driver doesn’t just call AAA and wait for a tow truck. There is another surprise in store for electron owners. An electric bus is much, much heavier than its diesel counterpart.
Those planet-saving batteries, you know.
Duggan Flanakin, a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, conveys the bad news, "To the surprise of many educators, electric school buses may break down and require towing.
"As with any electric vehicle, this poses risks not common to gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. One is that they are heavier — and thus require larger tow trucks (remember, tow trucks only tow the cabs of 18-wheelers, not the trailers).
"Towing capacity should be about half the weight of the towing vehicle, and the typical electric school bus weighs 36,000 pounds.
"Another thing the electric bussers ignore is the wear and tear on bus tires, which cost about $3,000 per set (likely higher by now, with inflation).
"Goodyear notes that electric school bus operators have to consider the extra weight of the buses, which makes balancing the tires for load capacity and durability even more important — and more frequently done. The extra weight also means that the tires do not last as long as on lighter weight diesel buses."
Towing, tires the hits never stop coming!
AP tells us, "Meanwhile, parents, advocates, and organizations said the switch to electric usually happens when there is a "champion" at schools." Champion, meaning another fanatic greenie that doesn’t let facts get in the way of their dreams.
These "champions" usually tout the long-term savings of running on electrons instead of diesel. Flanakin pops that balloon, too.
"The payback [meaning when the bus is paid for the and the money saving begins] on the electric school bus (at an average of 16,000 miles per year, a high-end estimate) comes out to about 20 years – longer than the lifespan of the bus. And that’s if nobody dies or is injured by a school bus fire."
In layman’s terms the electric bus never beats the diesel bus on cost.
With reliability and operating cost numbers that bad, why do schools keep ordering these behemoths? Two words: free money.
AP, "The Environmental Protection Agency is rolling out $5 billion in funds set aside for zero-emissions buses in the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure law, passed in 2021.
"Nearly 440 grants and rebates totaling $1.8 billion have already been disbursed to replace thousands of buses across several hundred school districts in the U.S."
Another case of your tax dollars being spent to subsidize failure, like in Afghanistan, only this time for school kids. Waypoints.org again, "But without that money, many school district officials say they wouldn’t have purchased these vehicles, mostly because they’re super expensive.
"A new electric school bus can cost about $350,000. That’s more than triple the cost of a new diesel bus. Plus, districts have to install expensive charging infrastructure."
Why does this madness continue?
It’s a combination of ideology and finance. The ideology is the Carbon Jihad waged by blue state politicians impervious to facts or reason.
The finance is campaign contributions.
A few well-placed thousands in campaign contributions can resulting in millions or billions of state a federal funding which is in turn used to buy these plug-in maintenance nightmares.
We don’t see a solution. Other than moving to a red state where your tax dollars are better spent.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.