School district leaders, local officials, and community members from across central Virginia gathered last week for a hands-on electric school bus demonstration event held at the Albemarle County Office Building parking lot.
Transportation directors from Albemarle County Public Schools and Louisa County Public Schools spoke about their fleet electrification plans, experience switching to electric school buses, and the grants that helped pay for the new technology. Attendees toured and rode around town in an electric school bus provided by Blue Bird Buses, one of the leading electric school bus manufacturers.
The event was hosted by Virginia nonprofits Generation180, Virginia Clean Cities, and Community Climate Collaborative.
Event attendees learned about the health, climate, and other benefits that electric buses offer and about the $10 million in grant funding currently being distributed by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to replace dirty diesel buses. Virginia school districts can apply now for a reimbursement of up to $3 million for 10 electric school buses and related charging infrastructure.
In August, Albemarle County Public Schools and Louisa County Public Schools were both selected to receive $530,000 to pay for two electric school buses in the first round of state grant funding released by the DEQ.
“Albemarle County Public Schools is committed to doing whatever we can to help create a safer and healthier environment for our students and community, and electric school buses can help us do that. They will reduce carbon emissions from ‘well to wheels’ by about 60 percent, which aligns with our school division’s new strategic plan as well as with Albemarle County’s Climate Action Plan. Electric school buses are the future of safe school transportation, and while county operations only account for 2% of greenhouse gases emitted in the county, it is important for the county to lead the way in our community for individuals and organizations to follow,” said Albemarle County Public Schools Director of Transportation, Jim Foley.
“Electric buses can place Albemarle on the right track to meet our climate goals,” said Albemarle County Supervisor Diantha McKeel. “Besides reducing climate pollution, these zero-emissions buses improve our resiliency while protecting the health of our children and bus drivers,” she added.
Electric school buses are key to protecting the health of the more than 1 million children in Virginia who ride diesel school buses and breathe in toxic fumes on the way to school. Transitioning Virginia’s fleet of 17,000 diesel-powered school buses to quieter and cleaner electric models would also improve air quality and reduce climate-harming carbon emissions, especially in low-income communities and communities of color who are disproportionately impacted by transportation pollution.
“Every child deserves to have a safe, clean ride to school, yet nearly 25 million students nationwide are still breathing toxic fumes while riding on dirty diesel buses. By switching to electric school buses, our schools can lead the way in this transformational shift towards clean transportation and clean energy that protects the health of our children and communities they live in,” said Tish Tablan, director of Generation180’s Solar For All Schools program.
“Clean transportation options like electric school buses are extremely important technologies that present new options throughout Virginia for air quality improvement and energy cost savings,” said Alleyn Harned, Executive Director of Virginia Clean Cities. “Virginia Clean Cities was glad to partner and showcase this, and we hope to demonstrate these capable vehicles all over the region.”
“Moving to zero-emissions school and transit buses should be an essential component of our local climate action plans,” said Susan Kruse, Executive Director of Community Climate Collaborative. “It’s time to make smarter, cleaner and more accessible transit a priority of our community planning.”
Virginia public school districts have until February 1st to apply for electric bus funding. Learn more about the Virginia DEQ’s Clean School Bus Program grant application here.
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