Thomas Catenacci of the Washington Free Beacon reviews a program touted heavily by Vice President Kamala Harris.
One of Kamala Harris’s highest profile responsibilities as vice president has been spearheading the federal government’s billion-dollar efforts to deploy thousands of electric buses across hundreds of school districts nationwide. But years into the program, only a small fraction of those projects have been completed while dozens of school districts have withdrawn from the program altogether.
As part of the first tranche of Clean School Bus program funding two years ago, Harris and EPA administrator Michael Regan unleashed nearly $1 billion in federal rebates for 389 school districts across all 50 states to help deliver a total 2,463 electric school buses. According to federal data reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, just 27 of those districts have proven to the EPA that their buses were delivered and that their diesel-fueled buses being replaced have been discarded.
Collectively, those districts have deployed a total of 60 battery-electric or low-emissions propane-fueled school buses. And 55 additional districts have pulled out of the program, according to other federal data shared with the Free Beacon, citing a variety of technological and infrastructure concerns. In other words: More school districts have withdrawn from the program than proven that they have completed it.
“EPA anticipates that transitioning to new technology school buses will take time, which is why the project period is two years with an option to extend where needed and justified,” said EPA spokeswoman Shayla Powell.
Powell didn’t deny that 60 school buses have been deployed as part of the program, but she explained that districts still have three months until the EPA’s deadline to either file close-out documentation showing they have obtained the buses and scrapped old buses, or file for an extension. The wide time frame is designed to give districts time to test the new buses out and integrate them into their fleet. Powell didn’t say how many total buses may have been deployed in districts that have yet to file close-out materials.
