California, New York and Illinois are the top three states for total electric school buses, according to new report released today by U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Environment America Research & Policy Center. The three states also lead the nation in combined federal and state investments into electric bus fleets.
According to the World Resources Institute, the United States now has 12,000 electric school buses, either in operation or coming soon, in more than 1,500 school districts. Beyond California, New York and Illinois, other top states include Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia and Georgia.
Historic federal and state funding is driving the conversion to electric school buses across the country. In addition to California, New York and Illinois, which are the top three states for total federal and state funding for electric school buses, Texas, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts round out the top ten.
U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Environment America Research & Policy Center -- and their state groups including CoPIRG Foundation -- work to encourage school districts to pursue electric vehicle funding to accelerate their conversion to a 100% electric school bus fleet. The groups also call on states, local governments and utilities to increase funding and reduce barriers to these cleaner electric school buses.
A recently published study in the JAMA, school districts replacing the oldest buses had greater improvements in educational standardized test scores than districts not awarded funding. The EPA’s School Bus Rebate Program, which began in 2012, provides funding to replace older diesel-powered school buses with new diesel, alternate fuel, hybrid, or electric school buses. The contention of the study was that students riding older school buses are often exposed to high levels of diesel exhaust as a result of emissions infiltrating the bus through leaky cabins or entering the bus directly through open windows or doors.
