MACON, Ga. — Wilkes County Schools (WCS) has marked the historic milestone of becoming the first school district in Georgia to serve all of its 25 daily bus routes exclusively with zero- and ultra-low-emission school buses. WCS’ new fleet of electric and propane-powered buses eliminates regular diesel bus routes, significantly improving air quality for students and the surrounding community, while also significantly reducing operating costs.
Blue Bird Corporation (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, delivered 5 electric and 12 propane-powered school buses to Wilkes County Schools. The company’s electric school buses generate zero emissions and can carry approximately 60 students up to 130 miles on a single charge.
WCS can considerably lower its operating expenses by replacing diesel with electric school buses due to reduced fuel and vehicle maintenance costs. School districts have reported paying a mere 19 cents per mile in energy costs for electric buses compared to fuel costs of up to 79 cents per mile for their diesel buses.
WCS will also rely on Blue Bird’s industry-leading propane buses for its student transportation needs. Blue Bird’s propane buses for the school district can carry approximately 60 students around 250 miles on a single tank of propane autogas. Propane school buses generate 96% fewer harmful emissions than their diesel counterparts.
In addition, propane-powered school buses help the school district to lower the total cost of ownership of its bus fleets by realizing fuel and maintenance cost savings of up to $3,700 per bus annually compared with diesel buses. WCS presently operates a fleet of 22 Blue Bird propane buses. Thus, the school district could save more than $1.2 million over the 15-year life of its vehicles.
“We are proud to be among the first school districts in the nation to launch a fleet of all electric and propane-powered school buses,” said Michelle Smith, superintendent of Wilkes County Schools. “Blue Bird’s zero- and ultra-low-emission school buses will help us to create a healthier environment for our students and our communities at-large while significantly lowering our operating costs. Together, we have transformed our ambitious vision of clean, sustainable student transportation into a reality.”
“We are delighted to supply Wilkes County Schools with our industry-leading, electric and propane-powered school buses,” said Albert Burleigh, vice president of North America bus sales at Blue Bird Corporation. “Moving forward, students on all 25 daily routes will travel exclusively on zero- and ultra-low-emission buses to and from school. We applaud Wilkes County Schools for putting student and community health first.”
The leading provider of school bus fleet electrification-as-a-service, Highland Electric Fleets, installed five new Tellus charging stations to support the district’s five electric school buses. These chargers allow WCS to utilize overnight and downtime charging, ensuring the buses are always ready to meet transportation needs.
“We’re thrilled to be one of the partners helping Wilkes County Schools transition to a fully clean school bus fleet, bringing lasting air quality to students and cost-saving benefits to the school district,” said Duncan McIntyre, CEO of Highland Electric Fleets. “By adding electric school buses and charging infrastructure, WCS is investing in healthier, more resilient communities, while ensuring that students have a safe, reliable ride to school every day.”
WCS received a $2,335,000 grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) highly effective Clean School Bus Rebate Program to purchase its Blue Bird electric and propane-powered school bus fleet. This program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) which provides a total of $5 billion over five years for clean school bus transportation nationwide. The EPA has already awarded nearly $3 billion through the landmark bipartisan initiative. The program to date will enable more than 1,300 school districts nationwide to replace old diesel buses with nearly 9,000 electric and ultra-low emission vehicles.
Blue Bird is the only U.S.-owned and operated school bus manufacturer in the United States. The company remains the proven clean transportation leader with more than 2,000 electric-powered, zero-emission school buses in operation today.
In addition, Blue Bird is the only school bus manufacturer in the United States to offer propane-powered school buses. Today’s propane engine is 90% cleaner than the most stringent federal emission standard set by the EPA. New and even stricter emission standards will take effect in 2027. Blue Bird’s ultra-low emission, propane-powered school buses exceed those emission standards already today.
Wilkes County Schools purchased its advanced electric and propane-powered vehicles through Blue Bird’s authorized school bus dealer Yancey Bus Sales & Service in Austell, Ga.
About Blue Bird Corporation
Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927. Our dedicated team members design, engineer and manufacture school buses with a singular focus on safety, reliability, and durability. School buses carry the most precious cargo in the world – 25 million children twice a day – making them the most trusted mode of student transportation. The company is the proven leader in low- and zero-emission school buses with more than 20,000 propane, natural gas, and electric powered buses in operation today. Blue Bird is transforming the student transportation industry through cleaner energy solutions. For more information on Blue Bird’s complete product and service portfolio, visit www.blue-bird.com.
About Wilkes County Schools
Located in historic Washington, Georgia, Wilkes County Schools serves approximately 1,250 students within a diverse and inclusive rural community. Guided by the vision of “Excellence Without Exception,” the district is dedicated to transformative education, offering robust programs in STEM, fine arts, Career and Technical Education, Advanced Placement, and dual enrollment. With a commitment to critical thinking, lifelong learning, and educator development, Wilkes County Schools fosters a safe, innovative learning environment. Grounded in community collaboration and a tradition of continuous improvement, the district prepares students to excel in an ever-evolving, competitive global workforce. For more information, visit www.wilkes.k12.ga.us.
About Highland Electric Fleets
Highland Electric Fleets is the leading provider of electrification-as-a-service for school districts, governments, and fleet operators in North America. Founded in 2019, Highland offers a unique suite of products that make it simple and affordable to upgrade to electric fleets today. Active in 30 states and Canada, Highland is responsible for the first use of electric school buses in a commercial vehicle-to-grid (V2G) program and the largest electric school bus project in the United States to date. To learn more, visit www.highlandfleets.com.
MACON, Ga.-Blue Bird Corporation (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, announced select preliminary full-year, unaudited results for fiscal 2024.
Select Preliminary Full-Year 2024 Results:
9,000 buses sold
Record net sales revenue of $1.35B
Record EV sales of 704 buses
Blue Bird sold 9,000 buses in fiscal 2024, up 6% and almost 500 units over prior year, reflecting the top end of guidance. Record sales revenue of $1.35B, was up 19% compared with prior year, and above guidance. Record electric vehicle sales of 704 buses was a significant 29% increase over last year.
Strong new order intake continued, yielding a fiscal year-end total backlog of more than 4,800 units, worth around $735M in revenue, up 10% from last year. EV backlog grew to a record level of nearly 630 buses, worth approximately $200M, driven largely by the ramp in orders from rounds 2 and 3 of the EPA’s Clean School Bus program, as expected.
“We are very pleased with our strong year-end performance resulting from the hard work by our team,” said Blue Bird’s President and CEO, Phil Horlock. “We are looking forward to discussing our full year 2024 results and fiscal 2025 outlook in our next earnings call on November 25, 2024”.
About Blue Bird Corporation:
Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927. Our dedicated team members design, engineer and manufacture school buses with a singular focus on safety, reliability, and durability. School buses carry the most precious cargo in the world – 25 million children twice a day – making them the most trusted mode of student transportation. The company is the proven leader in low- and zero-emission school buses with more than 20,000 propane, natural gas, and electric powered buses in operation today. Blue Bird is transforming the student transportation industry through cleaner energy solutions. For more information on Blue Bird’s complete product and service portfolio, visit www.blue-bird.com.
The devastation of Helene is being felt across the Southeast U.S. as the death toll was over 200 and counting with communities across a half-dozen states were left underwater, without power and cell service.
According to local news reports, at least 20 locations in western North Carolina received record rainfall that reached the 1,000-year flood threshold. Statistically speaking, flooding of this magnitude or greater has a 1 in 1,000 chance of occurring in any given year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
As of Thursday, over half of the 215 recorded deaths at that time had occurred in North Carolina, with the Asheville area the worst hit. Florida, where Helene made landfall last Thursday, announced at least 19 deaths. Georgia confirmed 33 deaths, South Carolina counted 41 deaths so far and Georgia 33 deaths. Florida, where Helene made landfall last Thursday, has at least 19 deaths, Tennessee, 11 and Virginia, two.
Gov. Ron Desantis released a statement confirming that emergency responders had to bulldoze four to five feet of sand off road to clear bridges and causeways along Florida’s Gulf Coast due to storm surges and flooding.
Patrick Sheehan, director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, told local journalists that over 100 people were confirmed missing with the number expected to grow.
Additionally, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said on their website that they have inspected over 100 bridges in 36 hours. Officials still have hundreds more to check.
State departments of transportation are also working around the clock to evaluate and repair highway infrastructure that ahs been closed due to being washed out if not completely destroyed, reported Roads & Bridges.
According to the National Weather Service, there are some concerns about additional landslides as precipitation could produce more runoff that can potentially result in unstable slopes across mountainous terrains.
In a statement, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced he would be deploying resources from the state’s emergency management agency and National Guard to North Carolina. Additionally, both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont will also be assisting in recovery efforts.
Subsequently, many school districts across these states announced closures of at least a week via social media. It was unclear in this report the extent of any damage to the district school buses and transportation operations across the Southeast.
Schools in several counties in North Carolina stated that poor road conditions as well as communications and electrical disruptions have impeded its reopening. Some districts have considered e-learning.
Carter County Schools in Tennessee said it be closed until Friday but will be providing food services across the county to families. Additionally, Jasper County School District in South Carolina also served bagged lunches at some of their campuses on Tuesday.
Asheville City Schools in North Carolina released a statement on social media announcing an indefinite closure. The district is working closely with first responders and county officials to set up a free Wi-Fi and a charging station in the main parking lot of the middle school.
District superintendent Dr. Maggie Fehrman sent a message thanking those that have been working nonstop during their recovery process.
A spokesperson for Daimler Truck North America, parent company of Thomas Built Buses, told School Transportation News that plants in the Carolinas are operating although not all are at full capacity.
Statement from Daimler Truck North America
Our thoughts are with everyone affected by Hurricane Helene. We wish everyone a full and speedy recovery.
At this time, all of our plants in the Carolinas are operational; not all are at full capacity. The Freightliner Custom Chassis plant in Gaffney, South Carolina, lost power due to the storm, but has since recovered. While we and our suppliers are assessing the impact on infrastructure and operations, we anticipate supply chain disruptions as some key components are manufactured in the affected areas.
DTNA has donated $100,000 to the Red Cross Hurricane Helene Relief Fund and has opened additional relief channels through Daimler Truck Cares.
Additionally, the spokesperson shared that Thomas Built Buses partnered with Carolina Thomas and Operation Airdrop to “stuff the bus” with needed supplies for the region.
Carolina Thomas, LLC said via social media that to support relief efforts they partnered with Operation Airdrop to fill buses with essential supplies and take them to drop-off centers throughout the week. Thomas Built Buses also confirmed via social media that they will be joining this partnership to help deliver essentials. Operation Airdrop is a non-profit organization that focuses on organizing general aviation assets in the aftermaths of natural disasters.
A spokeswoman for Blue Bird said school bus manufacturing facilities in Fort Valley, Georgia were “minimally affected” by Helene and that the company sustained no “lasting issues.” She added that all employees were safe and accounted, but the company remained “deeply saddened to see the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
“Our thoughts go out to those impacted both in Georgia and beyond.”
The Quartz Corp., a Norway-based company that makes semiconductor chips used in automobiles, has two mining facilities located in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, about an hour outside of Asheville. They both shut down due to widespread flooding, power and communications outages.
The company released a statement on Tuesday announcing it faces multiple challenges and has no visibility on when operations will restart.
School Transportation News continues to monitor the situation in the Southeast and will provide further updates as the information is made available.
A Kendrick High School student was shot and killed as he exited his school bus, reported WTVM News.
The incident reportedly occurred Thursday, Sept. 19 at approximately 4:30 p.m., when the teen identified as Earkavion Lee was getting off his school bus and was fatally shot.
Authorities said via the article that the shooting took place in the 2300 block of Watkin Drive. They also confirmed that Lee died of his injuries at around 5:15 p.m. at Piedmont Columbus Regional hospital.
According to local news report, Lee is the brother of another Columbus teen, Earkus Porter, who was fatally shot at Belvedere Park in February. At this time, it is unclear if the two incidents are related.
Police added via the article that 20-year-old Roannil Clanton was taken into custody and is being charged with the murder of Lee. Clanton had his first court appearance on Sept 24, where he pleaded not guilty.
On Sept. 24 three more suspects were reportedly arrested in connection to the teen’s death. Demetrius Miles, Gregory Nelson and Marquis Roberts were each charged with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of the crime. Additional details are yet to be released, and the case remains under investigation.
According to local news report, Lee is the brother of another Columbus teen, Earkus Porter, who was fatally shot at Belvedere Park in February. No details of this incident were known, and it was not reported if the incidents were related.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris debate for the first time during the presidential election campaign at The National Constitution Center on Sept. 10 in Philadelphia. A handful of issues and groups of voters in battleground states could decide the race. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Editor’s note: This five-day series explores voter priorities in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as they consider the upcoming presidential election and the nation’s future. With the outcome expected to be close, the “swing states” as they are called are often a bellwether for the country.
7 States + 5 Issues That Will Swing the 2024 Election
It’s been a wild few months in the presidential race: President Joe Biden dropped out and Vice President Kamala Harris captured the Democratic nomination. Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania and was targeted again at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Despite the historic lead-up to Election Day, the race has now settled into familiar territory: Much like 2020’s contest, top political strategists on both sides of the aisle expect control of the White House could come down to just a few thousand votes in a handful of battleground states.
“This is not going to be an election where you will see a landslide. It’s going to be won in the margins in six to seven swing states,” Democratic strategist Donna Brazile told a crowd of state lawmakers from across the country last month.
Brazile, who ran Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, shared the stage with Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway, who managed Trump’s 2016 campaign and advised him in the White House.
Unsurprisingly, the pair disagreed on much.
But while speaking at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Kentucky, the two senior strategists framed the race similarly to the 2020 contest, when fewer than 50,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin separated Biden and Trump from an Electoral College tie.
“It is a different race. It has turned in very short time, but the issue set hasn’t changed at all,” Conway said. “And I think that’s what’s important here.”
Voters line up on the first day of early voting in 2020 in Las Vegas, Nev. (Jeniffer Solis/Nevada Current)
Like last cycle, the two campaigns are pouring millions into Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In this “Battleground” series, States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, explores the political issues and groups of voters that could make the difference in those seven states and, consequentially, in the race for the White House.
Unsurprisingly, economic issues — namely, stubbornly high prices — are proving central for many voters across the swing states. But voters also are concerned about immigration, abortion access and the future of the Supreme Court.
In states such as Michigan and Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, labor unions could prove instrumental for Harris after years of significant gains by organized labor.
In Georgia and North Carolina, Black voter turnout could make the difference, while Latino voters are closely divided in Nevada after helping propel Biden to victory there four years ago. In every swing state, campaigns are focused on all-important suburban voters.
The election’s outcome also could be shaped by the work of officials who have been debating who can vote and which votes should count since the mayhem of the last presidential contest.
This is not going to be an election where you will see a landslide. It’s going to be won in the margins in six to seven swing states.
– Democratic strategist Donna Brazile
Four years ago, a false narrative that questioned the security and integrity of elections took hold in some legislatures. New laws changed ballot-counting practices and made it more difficult to vote in many states, including swing states. In states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, there is broad concern that despite the checks and balances built into the voting system, local Republicans tasked with certifying elections will be driven by conspiracy theories and refuse to fulfill their duties if Trump loses again.
Fears that these efforts could sow chaos and delay results is not unfounded: Over the past four years, county officials in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania have refused to certify certain local elections.
With such a close race, voter turnout and motivation will be key in all the battleground states.
As in other swing states, North Carolina’s 16 Electoral College votes could hinge on how political independents vote, said Carter Wrenn, a longtime Republican strategist who has worked on many campaigns.
And those independents can be unpredictable in North Carolina: Their votes helped both Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Trump carry the state in the last two general elections.
“It’s the independents that are up for grabs, and they don’t mind splitting a ticket at all,” Wrenn said. “Ultimately, in the general election, that’s the key group.”
The economy
In every state this year, the economy is a central issue.
As Trump tries to fault Harris and Biden for the high costs of everyday living, polling shows voters blame Harris less for the situation than they did Biden — though likely voters profess more confidence in Trump’s ability to manage the economy.
For her part, Harris has unveiled plans to lower prices of rent, homebuying and groceries, arguing she will remain focused on the middle class from Day One, contrasting her ideas with what she characterizes as Trump’s catering to billionaires.
In Georgia, Republicans and Democrats alike have found success in recent statewide campaigns by highlighting similar kitchen table issues. After attending a Harris rally in Savannah last month, Georgia voter Sarah Damato said she doesn’t believe Trump will fight for the middle class.
At the event, the vice president told listeners she would lower costs by fighting corporate price-fixing and touted her proposal for a “care economy,” a set of progressive proposals including benefits for parents of newborns and credits for first-time homebuyers.
“Kamala Harris made it very evident today that the American family is the most important thing on her mind these days, and she’s going to make it easier for each one of us to have a brighter future,” Damato said.
In Kenosha, Wisconsin, meanwhile, Republican Party volunteer Sharon Buege said she supports the GOP ticket because she sees the race as a matter of “good versus evil.” Speaking outside a news conference by Trump running mate J.D. Vance, Buege said she opposed “the whole left agenda,” adding that her top issues in the race were border security, the economy, human trafficking, homelessness and “indoctrination” in public schools.
It is a different race. It has turned in very short time, but the issue set hasn’t changed at all.
– Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway
At that same news conference, a man who would only give his name as “John” said the economy and inflation mattered most: “I don’t need a reminder of why to support Trump. I can get that every time I go to the gas station or grocery store.”
Groups of voters
With Republicans looking to run up margins in rural parts of the battleground states and Democrats banking on big leads in cities, the suburbs remain pivotal.
In Georgia, diverse and growing suburbs have helped move the state from reliably red to purple.
In the state’s two largest suburban counties of Cobb and Gwinnett, Biden picked up more than 137,000 votes in 2020 over 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to data from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. The same year, Trump boosted his total by just under 32,000 votes over his 2016 performance.
The Trump campaign boasts a mighty in-state operation: nearly 15,000 volunteers signing up between mid-July and the end of August, nearly 300 events scheduled for September, and 4,000 neighborhood organizers and canvassers — known as Trump Force Captains — joining the cause in July and August.
But Team Harris says they are running the largest Georgia operation of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle, with more than 200 campaign staff in 28 offices. Harris’ recent visit to the more conservative south side of the state marked her 16th trip to Georgia since becoming vice president and her seventh trip this year.
Harris is hoping to fire up the young, diverse Democratic base, but her team also is hoping she can hang onto or expand on Biden’s coalition of older, affluent, educated and largely white suburbanites.
“Those are the people who are actually kind of pivotal and who will modify or change their behavior,” said University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock.
“These people are largely Republicans, but they can’t bring themselves to vote for Donald Trump or for Republicans who are closely associated with him,” Bullock said.
Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia public affairs executive and political analyst, said the four suburban Philadelphia counties surrounding Pennsylvania’s largest city are key to winning that state. Once a Republican bastion, the so-called collar counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery have swung strongly in the other direction since 2016.
That complicates messaging for both campaigns, Ceisler said. Trump’s anti-abortion stance and Harris’ effort to back away from her earlier statements against fracking — both positions that appeal to rural and western Pennsylvania voters — are potential liabilities in suburbs.
Democrats have a 343,000-voter registration advantage over Republicans in Pennsylvania. But the state has been decided by narrow margins in the last two presidential elections.
Daniel Mallinson, an associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg, noted that the Trump campaign has paid attention to Black and Latino voters.
“One of the weaknesses that Biden had as a candidate was he had weakening support among African American voters. And then Trump has actually done fairly well, particularly in some other states, like in Florida, with Latino voters,” Mallinson said, adding that Harris’ nomination changes the equation somewhat.
After Democrats seemingly all but wrote off Arizona for Biden, the contest there is proving more winnable for Harris. Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020, but he had been hemorrhaging Latino support this year.
Employees join the picket line in September 2023 at General Motors’ Lansing Redistribution Center in Lansing, Mich. (Anna Liz Nichols/Michigan Advance)
In the manufacturing-heavy upper Midwest, labor unions could prove consequential in not only persuading voters but also motivating them to the polls.
Biden was the first sitting president to visit a picket line when the United Auto Workers last year took on the “Big Three” Detroit automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — by going on strike. That effort led to significant increases in pay and benefits for workers.
The UAW, which in August announced a national campaign to motivate its 1 million active and retired members to vote for Harris, says its membership accounted for 9.2% of Biden’s 2020 votes in Michigan alone.
“To me, this election is real simple,” UAW president Shawn Fain told a crowd of about 15,000 people last month at a rally in Detroit for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “It’s about one question. It’s a question we made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?”
Political weaknesses
While Democrats are more motivated than when Biden was the presumptive nominee, they still face internal conflicts, the most high-profile of which has been about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Dee Sull, a Las Vegas attorney who works in immigration and family law, is a registered Democrat who said she would never vote for Trump. Yet she doesn’t really want to vote for Harris, leaving her “very torn” this election.
“I believe our foreign policy in Gaza is completely ridiculous. I’m very disturbed,” she said of U.S. military aid to Israel. “If we’re going to spend money, I want it spent on my kids here — on my neighbors’ kids here.”
Sull said both parties have silenced the voices of those who protest the death and destruction in Gaza. And she was irritated that Palestinian American activists were not allowed to speak at the Democratic National Convention last month.
Sull won’t sit out the election, but said she would prefer to vote for a third candidate with a viable shot at winning.
“Probably like a lot of Americans would if they had that opportunity,” she said.
For Trump, voters’ overwhelming support for abortion rights could prove a huge liability in swing states.
While Trump has wobbled in recent months on whether he would veto a national abortion ban, the Supreme Court justices he appointed dismantled abortion access across the country in 2022 — an unpopular position even in red states such as Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio that since have voted to expand abortion rights.
In Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood stopped offering abortions at its health clinics after the court’s Dobbs decision because of an 1849 “trigger” state law that immediately took effect. Wisconsin women lost all abortion services there for a year and a half, until a court re-interpreted the state law.
This summer’s shakeup has reset the race, said Amy Walter, publisher of The Cook Political Report, an independent, nonpartisan newsletter that analyzes elections. So far, likely voters in the swing states view Harris more favorably than Biden, she said. But with Trump benefiting from an electorate skeptical of the state of the economy, the newsletter characterized the race as “a battle of inches.”
The campaigns both face a lot of voters who are disenchanted with politics altogether, or else unhappy with their options.
Amy Tarkanian, a conservative television commentator who once lauded Trump to national audiences and was chair of the Nevada State Republican Party in 2011-12, said she’s at “a complete loss” this year. She remains a Republican, even after the state party heavily criticized her when, two years ago, she endorsed a pair of Democratic candidates for state offices.
“I’m not happy, or necessarily sold on Kamala,” Tarkanian said. “… But I absolutely do not want to vote for Donald Trump.”
Arizona Mirror’s Jim Small, Michigan Advance’s Anna Liz Nichols and Jon King, Nevada Current’s Hugh Jackson, NC Newsline’s Galen Bacharier, Pennsylvania Capital-Star’s Peter Hall and John Cole, Georgia Recorder’s Ross Williams, and Wisconsin Examiner’s Ruth Conniff and Henry Redman contributed reporting.
MACON, Ga.-Blue Bird Corporation (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, today announced that Britton Smith has resigned from his position as President, effective September 28, 2024.
Mr. Smith has decided to step down for personal reasons. The Company respects his decision and wishes him well in his future endeavors. Mr. Smith will step down from the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire Blue Bird team, I want to express our gratitude to Britton for his leadership and contributions to the Company,” said Doug Grimm, Chairman of the Board. “We wish him all the best in the future.”
Following Mr. Smith’s departure, Blue Bird’s current Chief Executive Officer, Phil Horlock, will assume the additional role of President and continue to lead the Company, as he has for nearly 14 years.
“It has been an honor to serve as President of Blue Bird,” said Britton Smith. “My decision to step down is driven by personal reasons and I need to focus on these important aspects of my life at this time. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to our employees and partners for their support during my tenure.”
Blue Bird remains focused on executing its profitable growth plan, leading in the deployment of clean alternative-powered school buses and delivering value for its shareholders, customers, dealers and employees.
About Blue Bird Corporation:
Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927. Our dedicated team members design, engineer and manufacture school buses with a singular focus on safety, reliability, and durability. School buses carry the most precious cargo in the world 25 million children twice a day making them the most trusted mode of student transportation. The company is the proven leader in low- and zero-emission school buses with more than 20,000 propane, natural gas, and electric powered buses in operation today. Blue Bird is transforming the student transportation industry through cleaner energy solutions. For more information on Blue Bird’s complete product and service portfolio, visit www.blue-bird.com.
The reportedly second school shooting this calendar year and first of the new school year resulted in two students and two teachers killed and at least another nine injured.
The shooting at Apalachee High School, located near Winder, Georgia, occurred a little over a month after the first day of school, with the motive still unknown. Mason Schermerhom, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, were identified as the students killed. Teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, were also killed.
Nine additional people, eight students and one teacher, were injured and taken to various hospitals. Media reports indicated they are expected to recover.
School Transportation News reached out to the district for more information such as transportation’s involvement in student evacuation and reunification but had not heard back at this writing.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) stated that Barrow County authorities were notified on Wednesday at around 10:20 a.m. of an active shooter at Apalachee High School. Within minutes, law enforcement was on scene. The 14-year-old shooter surrendered immediately and was taken into custody. The teen allegedly made threats online, which included photos of guns.
GBI said the boy has been charged with four counts of felony murder, with more charges expected. He was taken to the Gainsville Regional Youth Detention Center but GBI said during a press conference on scene that he will be charged as an adult.
GBI added there is no evidence to suggest there were multiple shooters or that more schools are being targeted. All Barrow County Schools are closed Thursday and Friday. The district is offering counselors at the central office.
The first school shooting of 2024 took place in Perry, Iowa, where one student and one principal were killed. Max Christensen, father of two students who were at the school during the shooting and the recently retired state director of student transportation at the Iowa Department of Education, spoke about his experience and lessons learned for student transporters in June at STN EXPO East in Indianapolis, Indiana.
MACON, Ga. – Blue Bird Corporation (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, has delivered its 2,000th electric, zero-emission school bus marking an industry-leading milestone. Clark County School District (CCSD) in Nevada received Blue Bird’s 2,000th electric vehicle (EV) to help the nation’s fifth largest school district transition its school bus fleet to clean student transportation.
CCSD operates 373 schools serving more than 300,000 students. The district maintains a bus fleet of more than 1,900 vehicles. CCSD transports over 123,000 students each school day on more than 1,400 bus routes.
Blue Bird provided its most advanced All-American electric school bus to CCSD. Featuring Blue Bird’s new, extended range battery, CCSD’s milestone zero-emission vehicle can carry 84 students. Depending on the charging infrastructure, the bus takes between three and eight hours to recharge fully.
CCSD received a $9.875 million grant through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program to purchase electric school buses, including Blue Bird’s zero-emission milestone unit. This program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) which provides a total of $5 billion over five years for clean school bus transportation nationwide.
“Today, we delivered our 2,000th electric, zero-emission school bus in North America. We are thrilled to celebrate this major industry milestone with Clark County School District. Blue Bird is recognized as the undisputed leader in the field of clean student transportation. Electric school buses mean cleaner air to breathe for students, drivers, and the community at large,” said Britton Smith, president at Blue Bird Corporation. “Local, state, and federal funding for clean school buses remains at an historic high. Above all, we applaud the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program for accelerating the adoption of zero-emission student transportation nationwide and for helping to usher in an unprecedented era of technology innovation.”
CCSD’s milestone unit is now one of more than 2,000 Blue Bird electric school buses serving school districts across 41 U.S. states and 4 Canadian provinces. Replacing 2,000 diesel-powered and polluting school buses with an equal number of zero-emission vehicles reduces harmful carbon emissions by more than 21,000 metric tons annually. In addition, nearly 150,000 students a day are no longer exposed to diesel tailpipe emissions linked to serious health issues such as asthma or heart disease.
Blue Bird’s electric school buses have covered more than five million miles already. That is the same distance as driving the legendary Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles more than 2,000 times.
Blue Bird continues to significantly expand its electric school bus production in Fort Valley, Georgia. In 2023, the company opened a 40,000 square foot Electric Vehicle (EV) Build-up Center. In addition, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently selected Blue Bird to receive an $80 million grant to convert a former manufacturing site for diesel-powered motorhomes into an approximately 600,000 square foot, state-of-the-art electric vehicle manufacturing facility. The continued investments will enable the company to increase its long-term production capacity in excess of 5,000 electric school buses per year.
Blue Bird’s zero-emission school buses are powered by the electric PowerDrive 7000 system from Accelera by Cummins, which is a result of their long-standing collaboration on technology innovation. This partnership has been instrumental in providing school districts nationwide with sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation solutions.
Clark County School District purchased its advanced electric vehicle through Blue Bird’s authorized school bus dealer Bryson Sales & Service Inc., a family-owned, Utah-based business founded in 1969.
About Blue Bird Corporation
Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927. Our dedicated team members design, engineer and manufacture school buses with a singular focus on safety, reliability, and durability. School buses carry the most precious cargo in the world 25 million children twice a day making them the most trusted mode of student transportation. The company is the proven leader in low and zero-emission school buses with more than 20,000 propane, natural gas, and electric powered buses in operation today. Blue Bird is transforming the student transportation industry through cleaner energy solutions. For more information on Blue Bird’s complete product and service portfolio, visit www.blue-bird.com.
About Clark County School District
Established in 1956, the Clark County School District (CCSD) is the number one choice for families and students. As the nation’s fifth-largest school district, we educate 300,000 students offering a variety of nationally recognized programs, including Magnet Schools, Career and Technical Academies, and Advanced Placement programs. CCSD educates 64 percent of the students in Nevada and works closely with community partners and business leaders to educate students to compete in a global economy. For more information, visit https://ccsd.net.
A Rome City Schools bus driver was honored after helping students during a crash, reported Fox 5.
The crash reportedly occurred on Aug. 9 along Highway 101. Police stated via the article that a woman driving a Nissan Versa drifted over the center line and hit the school bus, which was carrying Rome High school football players and coaches that were coming back from a scrimmage against Rockmart.
The driver of the Nissan, Jeyonna Jariah Underwood was charged with DUI, failure to maintain lane and DUI endangerment of child under the age of 14.
Due to impact, the school bus overturned and crashed into a power pole while the Nissan went down an embankment.
On Aug. 13, school bus driver Nakita Strickland was honored by the district for his quick thinking and “safety-first” mentality to get everyone off the bus safely.
Strickland reportedly received a standing ovation and a certificate for his exemplary service.
Dutchtown Elementary School students were left inside their school bus for hours after they fell asleep, reported WSBTV News.
The incident reportedly occurred on Aug. 13, when 5-year-old Jada Nichols boarded her bus after school and fell asleep. Nichols and another child that also fell asleep were left inside the bus for nearly three more hours without the driver realizing it.
The girl’s mother, Lynette Coleman, told local news reporters that her daughter’s aunt was waiting for the child to arrive at 2:45 p.m. but the bus didn’t arrive for another 55 minutes. Nichols was not on board.
The child’s aunt went to the school, where they reportedly told her, “At this point we’ll have you guys knock on doors in the neighborhood to look for her.” Coleman, who was on the phone with her sister and heard what the district said, immediately called the police and reported her child missing.
According to the news report, Nichol’s aunt demanded the district check the bus again as they claimed the bus had already been swept. About 20 minutes later, the driver showed up with Nichols and another child that had been left behind.
Coleman also stated via the article that a different issue with the buses had occurred the previous week. When the assigned driver to her daughter’s bus did not know the route, forcing parents to drive around until they found the bus themselves by 5 p.m.
Coleman said she won’t let her daughter ride the bus anymore.
A new school year begins with a new law as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill with one of the highest minimum fines for passing a school bus in the nation.
In April, the legislature passed “Addy’s Law” to fine motorists at least $1,000 and imprison them for up to a year when convicted of illegally passing a school bus. The law took effect on July 1.
This law is named after 8-year-old Adalynn Pierce, who was hit and killed while attempting to board her school bus in February. According to local news, her family advocated for stricter punishment after she died.
The Georgia Department of Education states on its website that “all drivers are required to stop when meeting or overtaking a stopped school bus that has its red lights flashing and its stop arm extended when loading or unloading passengers.”
Additionally, an online graphic explains different situations a driver can potentially run into while driving near a stopped school bus.
For instance, when a bus is stopped in a two lane, vehicles traveling in both directions must also stop. When a bus stops on a multi-lane paved road, vehicles traveling in both directions must stop. Lastly, when a bus is stopped in a divided highway by dirt, grass or barrier media, then vehicles behind the must stop, while motorists traveling in the opposite direction can continue driving but must use caution.
The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation reported that the estimated number of motorists who illegally pass school buses had risen around 4 percent last school year nationwide. The data shows that approximately 9,189 Georgia motorists illegally passed a stopped school bus during a voluntary one-day count in the spring.
The Georgia fine is tied for the nation’s largest minimum amount. The Utah legislature passed a bill to increase its minimum fine for illegal passing to $1,000 in May.
According to AARP, the state with the lowest illegal passing fine is Wisconsin at $30. However, the most common fines in states are approximately $250 to $500.
Additionally, Addy’s law also requires public school districts to prioritize bus routes to avoid having student cross-roads that have a speed limit of more than 40 mph.
A survey conducted by AAA says 41 percent off Georgians admitted to driving over the speed limit while in an active school zone. Thirty percent admitted to using a hand-held cell phone while in an active school zone
Lee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Kathleen Truitt told local news reporters that 17 of the 64 routes in their district have been changed since Addy’s Law was signed. The school district is working towards ensuring its students’ safety.
In addition, Verra Mobility, a company that focuses on smart mobility technology created a school bus stop-arm program in Georgia with the aim of enhancing safety in school zones. This program uses cameras to capture when a vehicle passes a stopped school bus within an enforcement zone.
The images and videos captured by the camera are sent to be reviewed by law enforcement and if a violation is found, the registered owner will receive a citation by mail
A Verra Mobility spokesperson told STN that the program has issued more than 98,000 citations for illegally passing a stopped school bus during the 2023-2024 school year. However, because citations are shown to change a driver’s behavior, the number of tickets issued decreased as the school year went on.
“Verra Mobility’s Georgia stop-arm program collectively saw a 52 percent reduction in citations from illegal school bus passing from the beginning of the school year vs the end” stated the spokesperson. “Some programs witnessed as much as a 70 percent reduction in illegal school bus passing”
Atlanta Public Schools is one of the Georgia districts that showed a significant reduction in citations with 64 percent when comparing the first month of school with the last .
The program showed that 98 percent of people who received a citation for passing a stopped school bus, did not receive a second citation.
DALTON, Ga. — Growing up in Cartersville, Georgia, Lisa Nash saw what happens to communities when factory jobs disappear. It was the 1980s and corporations were offshoring production to reduce costs and raise profits. The jobs that remained in this northwest corner of the state were typically lower-paying ones that didn’t offer the same ladder to the middle class.
“My parents and grandparents were in manufacturing, and they were the ones saying, ‘Don’t do it,’” Nash recalled.
Nash disregarded their advice, embarking instead on a long career in manufacturing — first in textiles, followed by stints in aviation, automotive, and steel. Now she’s helping to bring higher-tech, higher-paying factory work back to the corridor between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
Nash is the general manager of the Qcells solar panel factory in Dalton, a town of 34,000 located 50 miles up I-75 from her hometown. It opened in January 2019, after the Trump administration imposed a fresh round of tariffs on Chinese-made panels. The Korean conglomerate Hanwha owns Qcells, and initially planned to hire several hundred people at the site, Nash told me on a recent visit to the factory. By the end of 2019, it employed more than 800.
Then, in 2020, Georgia helped elect President Joe Biden and sent two Democrats to the Senate, clinching a thin majority. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock got to work crafting detailed policies to promote domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies, which China had dominated for years; they wanted solar panels and batteries made in America — specifically Georgia — instead of in China, a geopolitical rival.
Those measures made it into the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in August 2022 — two years ago this week. The legislation created the nation’s first comprehensive policies to support domestic clean energy manufacturing. Qcells broke ground on a second facility in Dalton in February 2023. Completed that August, the expansion added two football fields’ worth of manufacturing space with four new production lines — which produce 1.5 times more solar panels than the original three lines, thanks to technological advances. Now the whole complex employs 2,000 people full time and makes 5.1 gigawatts of solar panels a year, more than any other site in the U.S.
Politicians have been promising for decades to retrain American workers and revive long-lost manufacturing, with little to show for it. Now, though, the U.S. has entered a new era on trade: Leaders of both parties have rejected the long-standing free-trade consensus and its penchant for offshoring jobs. Biden married that reshoring impulse with a desire to boost clean energy production, to both stimulate the economy and fight climate change.
This grand experiment remains in its infancy, and the success of the clean energy manufacturing revolution is by no means guaranteed. Cheap imports could outcompete even newly subsidized American products.
And if Republicans win the presidency and retake Congress, they’ve threatened to stop subsidizing low-carbon energy resources and instead double down on fossil fuel production. House Republicans — including Dalton’s representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene — have voted repeatedly and unsuccessfully to repeal the domestic manufacturing incentives in the IRA. (Greene’s press office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
“Donald Trump and his Republican allies promised to gut the Inflation Reduction Act if he’s reelected, so there’s a lot at stake here,” Representative Nikema Williams, who leads the Georgia Democrats, told me.
Since the IRA passed, Georgia has received $23 billion in clean energy factory investment, much of it flowing to northwest Georgia. I wanted to see what impact this is having on communities formerly hit hard by industrial decline, so I followed the money trail to Dalton earlier this summer.
I found a population that seems to like having advanced solar manufacturing in their backyard. Dalton’s solar jobs are boosting wages, invigorating the historic town center, and employing local high school graduates. Those benefits are starting to spread to nearby communities, where new solar factories are springing to life. In November, voters will weigh two very different visions of America’s energy future on the ballot, but Dalton is already reaping the rewards from slotting solar into its storied history of industrial production.
From carpets to solar
Both CSX and Norfolk Southern run Class I rail lines through Dalton, a testament to its industrial legacy, and freight trains bellow day and night.
That legacy harks back to 1900, according to local historians, when Catherine Evans Whitener sold a hand-tufted bedspread from her front porch for $2.50. The cottage industry took off in this land of forested ridges and stream-crossed valleys, and over time, local factories consolidated into global carpeting giants Shaw Industries and Mohawk Industries.
“The carpet industry was born here,” Carl Campbell, executive director of economic development at the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce, told me when I visited the Chamber. The New Georgia Encyclopedia states that 80 percent of America’s tufted carpet production happens within 100 miles of Dalton.
The conference room where we spoke sported large-format aerial photographs of the major factories nearby: the largest Shaw site, 650,000 square feet; and the new Engineered Floors colossus, 2.8 million square feet.
“You feel like there’s enough carpet in that building to cover the whole world,” said Campbell, who grew up in Dalton.
Dalton employment numbers peaked at 80,200 in 2006, per the Chattanooga Times Free Press. But the Great Recession crushed the homebuilding industry, cratering demand for Dalton’s carpeting products.
Dalton “was a ghost town in 2011, nothing going on because everybody was hurting,” Campbell added. From June 2011 to June 2012, Dalton notched the dubious distinction of most jobs lost of all 372 metro areas surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By that point, one-quarter of Dalton’s pre-recession jobs had vanished, and unemployment surged to 12.3 percent.
Since then, the industry has recovered somewhat. Engineered Floors, Mohawk, and Shaw still dominate local employment, with some 14,000 jobs among them, Campbell said. Those companies have had to adapt to evolving consumer tastes, shifting from wall-to-wall carpets to hardwood and other flooring materials. They’ve also automated aspects of production, reducing the number of workers needed.
In the wake of the Great Recession, local leaders sought to diversify Dalton’s industry. The county acquired an undeveloped lot south of town, and Campbell later pushed to clear and level the site, so it was shovel-ready for some future tenant. When Trump’s solar tariffs kicked in, Campbell’s counterparts at Georgia’s Department of Economic Development sent Qcells his way.
Qcells showed up in February 2018, looking to spin up its first American solar-panel factory in less than a year. “Suddenly, we had exactly what they needed,” Campbell said.
Thus Dalton managed to bring in new industry to balance out its base of carpets and flooring. Qcells originally promised to invest $130 million and hire 525 people within five years, Campbell said.
“They did it in three months,” he added. “In terms of an economic development project, they check all the boxes: Everything they said they would do, they did it faster than they said they would do it.”
Domestic solar manufacturing, by humans and robots
When I asked folks around town what they thought of Qcells, they kept mentioning the dozens of air-conditioning units arrayed on the factory roof, like a field of doghouses, easily visible from I-75. I later learned that Qcells brought in helicopters to install those units, which made for a bit of small-town spectacle. Still, it struck me as a surprising detail to dwell on for a business that somehow turns the sun’s rays into cheap, emissions-free electricity.
Once I crossed Qcells’ sizzling parking lot and stepped indoors, it started to make sense. Georgia gets hot, and carpet factories get hot, but the vast floors of the twin solar factories are quite literally cool places to work.
The climate control is not unique to assembling solar panels, but it is required for the sensitive, precisely calibrated product. The air conditioners are but one sign that high-tech manufacturing has arrived, and that it makes for pretty comfortable work.
I met my two tour guides, Wayne Lock and Alan Rodriguez, in the factory lobby, and they quickly confirmed the physical appeal of Qcells jobs. Lock, now a quality engineer at Qcells, previously worked in carpet manufacturing; he had to wear special heat-resistant gear to handle carpeting materials that would otherwise deliver third-degree burns. Rodriguez, an engineering supervisor at Qcells, used to apply the coating material underneath carpets.
“You’re sandwiched between the steamer and the oven, so it gets quite hot,” Rodriguez told me. Attending to those machines exposed him to temperatures that could exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Even more than Qcells’ air conditioning, though, people I spoke to kept bringing up the pay.
By offering more for zero-skill, entry-level positions than the other factories in town, Qcells started attracting workers and pushed up wages across Dalton, Campbell said: “Competition brings everybody, so everybody’s had to kind of equalize to keep employees.”
Now Qcells hourly wages for non-experienced hires start at $17.50 to $22 — that amounts to $36,400 to $45,760 a year for full-time work. Workers with experience in robotics and manufacturing can take home much more than that. Employees can raise their pay through a variety of on-the-job training, most of which involves handling and troubleshooting the in-house fleet of robots.
Engineers Alan Rodriguez, left, and Wayne Lock pose with a recently completed solar module at Qcells’ new factory in Dalton. (Julian Spector)
Lock, Rodriguez, and I walked into the newest factory, past meeting rooms with names like Naboo and Mandalore, Star Wars locales where quirky robots coexist with all manner of creatures. As we strolled across the floor, squat wheeled autonomous vehicles rolled past us down pathways marked by tape on the smooth floor, ferrying bales of materials or hauling out hulking boxes of finished panels.
“We try to stay out of their way, and if we don’t, they yell at us,” said Lock. “It’s fun.”
As we stood talking, I noticed that one such robo-buggy was waiting for us to move. Barely discernible over the background drone of machines, a female voice intoned, “Robot is moving. Please look out.” When humans hold up more time-sensitive deliveries, Lock explained, the voice switches to male and gets louder.
Other robots remain fixed in place, carrying out repetitive precision tasks. I stared, mesmerized, at one machine that split wafer-thin silicon cells in half, first scoring them with a laser, then slicing them with a concentrated jet of water. A taller machine grabbed nearly 8-foot metal frames and sliced them through the air like a master swordsman in a Kurosawa film, to slot them around glassed-in silicon panels.
Throughout the process, cameras scan cells and use artificial intelligence to shunt defective items off the line for manual correction.
In the 2019-era factory next door, humans carry out many of these tasks. Lock, though, didn’t see the robots as competitors — he said they were taking on more physically demanding jobs so the humans could step into higher-skilled roles tending to robots.
“The ergonomics are better for you,” he said, and the new lines are more productive.
Hiring local, spending local
When Qcells was first staffing up, it relied on Quick Start, a Georgia state program that funds worker training for new factories before they open — a major draw for executives deciding where to locate their factories.
Qcells still recruits to meet ongoing staffing needs, and it has been paying special attention to high schoolers who are graduating and looking for employment. Nash speaks passionately about Qcells’ recruitment efforts; she’s seen the civic fallout from decades when local families encouraged kids to avoid manufacturing.
“Small communities cannot thrive with kids graduating and leaving those communities to live elsewhere, to get high-paying technical jobs,” Nash said. “That’s what’s happening across the country. Bringing manufacturing back, and bringing highly automated manufacturing, is offering job opportunities where now these students are staying here.”
Some 56 percent of Dalton-area students enroll in postsecondary education within 16 months of graduating high school, said Stephani Womack, director of education and workforce development for the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce. For the remainder, the chamber wants to make sure family-supporting jobs are available.
For two weeks in June, Womack helped run Project Purpose, a crash course in how to start and navigate careers that pay living wages. Recent high school graduates prepped for interviews, shopped for professional clothes, and toured housing options and downtown hotspots — the kinds of places they could frequent once they join the workforce.
But the centerpiece of the program amounted to professional speed dating, as Dalton’s major employers offered tours and entry-level jobs. Last year, Dalton’s first time running Project Purpose, seven young adults completed the program, and Qcells hired one of them. This time, 18 finished, and Qcells hired 12 of them to start on July 1.
“Next year, we hope to double that, or more,” Nash said.
Several participants came in knowing about Qcells, betting that the intensive crash course would increase their odds of landing good roles there, Womack told me over a table at Garmony House, a downtown coffee shop that draws lines for its statuesque strawberry cupcakes and coffee-glazed cinnamon rolls.
“Qcells is providing a diverse set of options for our students who need to go to work but want to stay in our community,” Womack said. “They see a climate-controlled facility with entry-level opportunities — that’s exciting for them. … Manufacturing isn’t what it used to be.”
For younger people to stay in town and build a life, Dalton needs more housing, and now it’s getting its first large apartment complex in over two decades, Campbell said. In total, 900 apartment units are slated to come online from last August through this November — not enough to catch up on a long-running housing deficit, but a step in the right direction.
That renewed real estate activity is reflected in downtown Dalton’s bustling core.
Locals pack the booths at the Oakwood Cafe, perhaps the only place in America that sells a platter of egg, sausage, toast, and grits for just $3.65. Multiple microbreweries beckon, as does a plush cocktail bar, the Gallant Goat, which stocks fresh mint by the fistful to garnish its drinks. Down the road, diners can sample ceviche of shrimp shipped in from coastal Mexico, succulent chicken wings, and high-end Southern cuisine.
This spring, the plush Carpentry Hotel opened across from the Oakwood Cafe, decked out with vibrant textile art to commemorate the town’s carpeting heritage.
“That’s been big for us, getting that hotel in downtown. That’s indicative of a robust local economy that people are coming to participate in,” local real estate agent Beau Patton told me as the late afternoon sun streamed into the Gallant Goat. Patton works with Qcells employees who want to buy homes in the area. He sees the factory’s decision to locate there as “very mutually beneficial” for Qcells and Whitfield County: “What you hope is Whitfield County grows with it, and it grows with Whitfield County.”
From Dalton to towns across Georgia
Dalton got in early on the national clean-energy factory revival, and has already seen its solar factory push up wages, enable high school graduates to stay and start careers, and inject money into a reinvigorated downtown. Many more communities in Georgia are following close behind with their own cleantech factories, seeking a similar economic jolt.
“There is a palpable and intense sense of excitement across the state about how these manufacturing and infrastructure policies are supercharging Georgia’s economic development,” said Senator Jon Ossoff, the Georgia Democrat who authored the IRA manufacturing incentives that Qcells is tapping into. “And I would add, it’s not just the primary industrial facilities; it’s all of the secondary and tertiary suppliers and vendors and service companies and the financial services firms needed to support them.”
Qcells is building an even bigger factory compound down in Cartersville, which won a conditional $1.45 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy on August 8. This facility will take advantage of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits to onshore more steps of the solar supply chain: slicing silicon wafers, carving them into solar cells, and assembling finished modules with even newer robots than the ones I saw in Dalton. Until now, those high-value precursors to solar panels were shipped in from overseas. Workers in Dalton complete just the last step: assembling modules. Cartersville promises to bring the dream of American-made solar a bit closer to reality.
To achieve that dream, the industry has a few other challenges to confront. For one, 97 percent of the glass that encloses solar panels comes from China. Besides the geopolitical implications of that dependence, glass is so fragile and heavy that its shipping costs make domestic production enticing both economically and environmentally.
“We need domestic glass to have an efficient supply chain,” said Suvi Sharma, founder and CEO of solar recycling startup Solarcycle. His company is breaking ground on a combination solar-panel recycling facility and solar-glass factory in Cedartown, some 70 miles southwest of Dalton. Sharma expects to invest $344 million in the community and hire 600 full-time employees.
Compared with Dalton and Cartersville, “Cedartown is more off the beaten path — this would be the first large-scale factory going up there,” said Sharma. After years in which the population declined and young people looked elsewhere for jobs, “this enables them to keep people and bring in more people. There’s a cascading impact.”
Solarcycle will use its rail spur to ship in low-iron silica from a mine in Georgia, plus soda ash and limestone. Over time, it will supplement those raw ingredients with increasing amounts of glass the company will pull from decommissioned solar panels, including those made by Qcells. The goal is to produce enough glass for 5 gigawatts of panels per year; Solarcycle will ship the glass to nearby customers. At that point, workers in northwest Georgia will have a hand in all the major steps of solar-module production except the processing of raw polysilicon. Hanwha recently became the largest shareholder in REC Silicon to secure access to domestic polysilicon from the Pacific Northwest.
Georgia also nabbed a hefty chunk of the electric-vehicle factory buildout catalyzed by IRA incentives. Hyundai is dropping nearly $1 billion on its “Metaplant” near the deepwater port of Savannah and building an adjacent $4.3 billion battery plant with LG. Kia erected a new EV9 SUV manufacturing line at its plant in West Point, about halfway down Georgia’s border with Alabama. The first EV9 rolled off the line in June — less than two years after the IRA was signed into law.
Dalton, then, is a leading indicator of the industrial invigoration that clean energy factories are bringing to cities and towns across Georgia. People broadly appreciate it — if not for the role in combating climate change or countering China’s industrial might, then for high starting wages, comfortable working conditions, and opportunities for advancement.
But for this nascent factory boom to endure, the policies that triggered it need to stay in effect. The people of Georgia played a decisive role in spurring this manufacturing revival; this November, they’ll have an outsize role in deciding if it continues.
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