Why Electric School Buses?

• Reduced emissions & health risks:

  • Zero emission vehicle with 70% renewable RG&E electricity vs. COx, NOx & particulate emissions.

• Safety, maintenance and fuel-cost advantages:

  • Low risk of roll-overs due to low center of gravity (batteries along bottom of bus).

  • Greatly reduced number of moving parts (~20 compared to 2000+ for internal combustion engines).

  • 50% reduction in fuel cost with current 70% renewable energy RG&E electric grid.

• Provide mobile emergency energy source for resiliency hubs:

  • Electric school buses can provide emergency power for a school or recreation center during a grid outage.

• Critical timeline for greenhouse gas emissions reduction:
  - Narrowing window to avert the worst of the future climate crises (IPCC).

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How to Adopt Electric School Buses:

• State and Federal funding sources:​

  • NYSERDA Truck Voucher Incentive Program

  • Federal Clean School Bus Act

• Utility programs and investments:

  • Federal and State incentives for electric utilities to help sponsor the transition to electric school buses.

  • Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) energy cost savings.

  • Pay-As-You-Save programs.

• Revenue-neutral options:

  • Guarantee zero increase in transportation costs.  

  • Assume interface with RG&E for charging infrastructure development.  

  • Absorb risk (infrastructure & maintenance costs).

  • Brand agnostic.

  • Highland Electric Transportation

• Manufacturers and incentives

  • IC Buses

  • Lion Electric

  • Thomas School Buses

  • Motiv Power Systems

  • Blue-bird School Buses

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Articles and Press Releases:

• (24-Feb-2021) Washington Post:  Montgomery, MD:  Committed to transition 1,422 buses to EV by 2035

• (25-Feb-2021) Green Tech Media:  Highland Electric Lands Biggest Electric School Bus Contract in the US

• (05-Nov-2020) NY Times:  Beverly, MA first EVSB - using VW settlement funds

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Resources:

• Live Green Network:  AFLEET Tool and Users Guide

• (2021) Live Green Network, Multi-State Electric School Bus Boot Camp Webinar Series:

  • Session 1 (access code:  n^L9=%nh):  Beverly, MA Case Study

  • Session 2 (access code:  9Re=WCZ):  Hear from Industry Leaders

  • Session 3 (access code:  %#*3sz56):     Highland Electric Transportation

• (2021) U.S. PIRG & Environment America (15 p):  Accelerating the Transition to Electric School Buses

• (2021) New York League of Conservation Voters:  Electric School Bus Programs

• (2020) New York League of Conservation Voters:  Clean Bus Guide & VW Settlement

• (2020) NYS Clean Cities Coalition (46 p):  Funding the Transition to an Electric School Bus Fleet

• (2018) New York League of Conservation Voters (39 p):  Whitepaper on Electrifying New York's School Buses

• (2018) U.S. PIRG (30 p):  Paying for Electric Buses

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