Clean school buses, EV charging get boost in latest US funding announcements

The Biden administration Jan. 8 announced the winners of two major funding opportunities – one aimed at expanding the fleet of clean school buses and the other supporting electric vehicle deployment and charging infrastructure – as it works to advance progress on its national blueprint for transportation decarbonization.

The Environmental Protection Agency selected 67 applicants to receive nearly $1 billion under its first-ever Clean School Bus Program Grants Competition that will help with the purchase of more than 2,700 clean school buses in 280 school districts across 37 states. Separately, the Department of Energy announced 16 projects spanning nine states and Washington selected to receive a combined $32.5 million to promote technology integration needed to advance transportation electrification.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy Ann Shikany lauded the success made in the year since the departments of Energy, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development along with the EPA laid out a collective plan to decarbonize the transportation sector by 2050.

"We're doing more than just signaling commitment to climate action, and really taking steps that you should be able to feel in your states," Shikany said at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting in Washington.

Transportation overtook the electric power industry as the highest-emitting sector in 2017 and continues to be the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, with the movement of passengers and freight accounting for about 27% of US GHG emissions in 2020.

Clean transportation solutions

Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, said at the TRB meeting that the funding from DOE reflected the department's work to partner with communities to help transform the technology space for EVs. The funded projects will focus on reducing EV infrastructure installation costs; educating consumers; implementing regional EV deployment; and expanding outreach, education, and training for underserved communities.

Selected projects include an Electric Power Research Institute initiative to address key challenges to the utility interconnection process and support the EV supply chain; a nationwide EV charging recognition and technical assistance program led by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council; and Plug In America's consumer EV education campaign.

The DOE clarified that selection for award negotiations was not a commitment by the department to provide funding as applicants must first undergo a negotiation with the DOE, which can still cancel the award or rescind the selection for any reason.

Yellow buses go green

With the EPA's Jan. 8 announcement, the agency's Clean School Bus Program has awarded nearly $2 billion and funded about 5,000 electric and low-emission school buses nationwide.

In a call with reporters, White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi cheered the progress being made to turn the "iconic yellow school bus to something green," saying that kids are "going to jump into a bus that no longer pumps [toxic pollution] into their lungs and no longer will they hear that roar of a diesel engine."

Further, Zaidi contended that the bus program was helping "catalyze new business models and new approaches to finance these types of vehicles."

He pointed out that 14 states are piloting vehicle-to-grid programs centered on leveraging electric school buses to benefit the grid, be it through smoothing out electricity demand, lowering customers' rates or providing backup power during a storm.

"In other parts of the country, utilities are actually helping pay for the school buses in partnership with school districts because of the value that is generated," Zaidi said. "As we shift to this new set of fleets, we're seeing folks come in, take some capital risk and deliver a new service to school districts ... that's going to get catalyzed by these infrastructure law investments that are helping make this technology more accessible."

Power demand concerns

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, on that same call with reporters, said "when a school makes a choice to make a significant investment in an electric school bus, they are factoring all of these elements into the business upside, the practicality of what they use buses for, and the impact to the climate and the environment."

Regan acknowledged a recent EPA inspector general report that warned that the pace and scope of efforts to replace diesel-powered buses could be stalled by hurdles associated with the increase in power demand the vehicles would put on utilities.

He said he was in "constant contact with the IG" and would continue to partner to address any concerns. But in talking with utility CEOs across the country, he said the sector was more excited than apprehensive about the growing demand for EVs.

"And so I have no doubt that our electricity system can handle this transition," Regan said.