Battleground State of Pennsylvania Gets First Electric School Buses Funded by Biden Admin

Pennsylvania on Thursday received its first electric school buses funded by the Biden administration, an effort in the critical state that is expected to highlight the president’s climate agenda.

First Student, which is the leading school transportation provider in North America, will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The event will celebrate the implementation of buses funded by the Clean School Bus Program, which was included in the bipartisan infrastructure law.

The state received six new electric school buses made by IC Bus Tulsa in Oklahoma, a shop staffed by United Auto Workers. The infrastructure law authorized $1 billion to the EPA for this program for each fiscal year 2022 through 2026, and the EPA then gave First Student $140 million.

Kevin Matthews, head of electrification at First Student, told The Hill that communities welcome electric school buses, regardless of political affiliation, because they see the benefits of it.

“School buses are not red, they are not blue. They are yellow and we all benefit when we make them greener. And parents like it because their children won’t be exposed to emissions. Mayors see this as reducing emissions in their community, which is often their goal,” he said. “The school district likes to show that it’s on the cutting edge…and so our drivers like that from a performance standpoint and how they operate.”

“I think everyone sees the benefits of electrifying school buses,” he added. “School buses are literally in every community…it’s a great place to start, figuring out the issues for everyone.”

Matthews also spoke about the benefits of school bus electrification, in addition to climate impacts. He said quieter buses can help student behavior because students don’t scream because of the noise of the bus’s diesel engine and in turn don’t get as excited, and he said students with special needs can also benefit from the buses. quieter.

Additionally, improvements in behavioral issues among students could help with the current shortage of school bus drivers; Student behavior is one of the reasons drivers quit, along with wages, he said.

First Student operates more than 330 electric school buses in North America. Other states that have received them so far include Oregon, California, Missouri, Illinois, Montana and Rhode Island. The buses are charged by First Student FlexCharge chargers that are parked on campuses.

The EPA’s Clean School Bus Program aims to provide school districts with clean or zero-emission school buses to help combat climate change and lower the risks of cancer and asthma in young children.

Biden’s campaign focused on Pennsylvania, which he won in 2020 and considers a second home to him after neighboring Delaware.

Biden trails former President Trump, his likely Republican opponent in the November election in Pennsylvania, by 0.4 percentage points, according to polling aggregation from Decision Desk HQ. Biden campaigned across the state last week, making visits to Scranton and Pittsburgh.