With less than two years remaining before school districts in New York are required to purchase only electric school buses, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is open to delaying the mandate because of increasing challenges.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Hochul was asked by News10NBC if she is considering delaying the law she signed in April 2022.

“Absolutely,” Hochul responded. “We’ve been having many conversations about it. This is, aspirationally, we want this to happen. We also have to take into consideration that their circumstances have changed since this went into law.”

One of the circumstances she noted was the current inability of some school districts to acquire electric school buses, not to mention in 2027. She noted that already $500 million exists in a larger $4.2 billion environmental bond act to alleviate the costs of electric school buses and to help local school districts with the transition.

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“This is not going to be a hard and fast rule because we have to deal with the realities that these school districts are facing,” she Hochul added.

There is already legislation, introduced on Jan. 24, that would alleviate some of the pressure. New York Senate Bill 3328 would authorize school districts to submit an opt-out waiver to the commissioner of education. Authorized districts would receive a permanent exemption from the mandate of zero-emission school buses. A bill died last year would have replaced the electric school bus mandate with a feasibility study.

The law already includes a one-time extension that would allow districts to be granted an additional two years to comply with the 2035 deadline of having fully electric fleets.

The post New York Gov. Hochul Open to Extending Electric School Bus Mandate appeared first on School Transportation News.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it tentatively selected 70 applicants to receive over $735 million from the Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program for the purchase and implementation of zero-emission heavy duty vehicles, including electric school buses.

EPA stated on Dec. 11 that the applicants span 27 states, three Tribal Nations, and one U.S. territory.

The School Bus Sub Program portion of the grant includes $490 million to fund new zero-emission electric school buses and associated infrastructure and looks to deliver approximately 70 percent of total funding to school bus replacement projects. The funds being awarded will go toward the purchase of over 1,600 electric school buses.

EPA also said it will be working with the selected applicants to finalize award details and “currently anticipates finalizing awards in early calendar year 2025 once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied.” Depending on the scale of each individual project, implementation will occur over the next two to three years.

Some of the grant fund allocation for zero-emission buses and infrastructure include an anticipated $35 million to Boston Public Schools to replace 125 diesel and propane school buses with electric school buses as well as purchase chargers for the buses. Multiple school districts in California are slated to receive funds. Over $20.3 million is destined for Los Angeles Unified School District to replace 50 fossil fuel-powered school buses and $15.1 million to Oakland Unified School District to replace 60 of its buses with electric school buses.

A full list of tentative applicants and project fund amounts can be found here.

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