Electric Buses Reduce Harmful Pollution Exposures to Schoolchildren

By Michael Gold

Combustion-powered school buses aren’t like “The Magic School Bus” books for kids – full of the adventure of learning.

In fact, they’re downright harmful to children.

Diesel and gas school buses emit something called particulate emissions, in addition to greenhouse gases, Patty Buchanan told me in a recent interview. The pollution is the product of the engine’s combustion of diesel or gas.

“The inside of a school bus has toxic fumes,” said Buchanan, a board director with CURE100, a Westchester nonprofit organization that fights pollution from greenhouse gases.

The children and the bus driver inhale those fumes. Also, anyone in the immediate vicinity of the bus, such as parents sending their kids to school, breathe in this harmful stew as well.

The particulate pollution is “bad for the respiratory system. It can get settled into the lungs and gets into the bloodstream,” Buchanan said. “This adversely impacts the development of the brain. It’s especially harmful to young, vulnerable people.”

“Diesel- and gasoline-powered engines emit significant quantities of air pollutants like particular matter, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide – all of which are associated with chronic health conditions,” the New York State Energy and Research Authority (NYSERDA) website states.

Croton-Harmon Schools educates close to 1,600 students a year and owns about 45 school buses, said Buchanan, who went to Croton-Harmon High School.

Both NYSERDA and the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “recognize the harmful impact on children of these buses,” Buchanan said.

NYSERDA is funding an initiative to move to electric buses, Buchanan explained. State law directs that all new school bus purchases must be zero-emission vehicles by 2027, and that all school buses in the state must generate zero emissions by 2035.

“Combustion-engine school buses, which currently make up the majority of New York State’s fleet, emit approximately 1.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year,” according to the NYSERDA website.

“Electrifying 10,000 school buses (roughly 25 percent of the state’s school bus fleet), alone would be equivalent to removing almost 40,000 passenger vehicles from the road,” NYSERDA states.

“We know that climate change is going to adversely impact young people. It’s immoral to continue to unnecessarily emit greenhouse gases,” Buchanan pointed out.

CURE100 is working with other Westchester advocates to purchase electric school buses, to mitigate the multiple pollution problems caused by diesel- and gasoline-powered vehicles.

The organization worked to promote the purchase of two electric buses on Croton’s roads, with two more on the way. White Plains obtained five electric buses in 2018. Sleepy Hollow has one electric bus and has funding for five more. Katonah-Lewisboro has one electric bus. Scarsdale plans to purchase one as well.

If an electric bus is “charged with clean electricity, the bus emissions can be zero,” Buchanan explained.

“You are better with an electric bus,” in terms of lowering “greenhouse gas emissions, particulates and total cost of ownership (TCO),” she said. “While the initial purchase price of an electric bus is higher than a diesel- or gas-powered bus, the TCO of the electric bus over the average 12-year lifespan of a school bus will be less expensive than a fossil fuel-powered vehicle.”

Buchanan discussed why she’s focused on school buses.

“The irony is that we’re funding education to improve the lives of young people, while subjecting them to known toxins and multiple long-term harms,” she stated.

When asked how the electric buses are performing, Buchanan said, “They’re running well.”

She is also working with both a national organization – Mothers Out Front – and the Peekskill Electric School Bus Coalition to advocate for purchasing more of the vehicles.

“Peekskill is a climate justice community,” Buchanan said because of its demographics, the high amount of pollution in the city, higher poverty rates and its vulnerability to fossil fuels, in part because Westchester County’s Wheelabrator waste incineration plant is located there.

CURE100 has created a tool, called Bus Electrification for Student Transportation (BEST), to provide information on the relative TCO of an electric school bus versus a fossil fuel bus.

The BEST tool “allows for easy comparison of electric school buses and fossil fuel school buses. It automatically produces graphical charts of Total Cost of Ownership, Cumulative Carbon Savings and PM 25 (Particulate Matter 2.5 microns are smaller) emissions,” the CURE100 website states.

“It also serves as a repository of resources to convince School officials, transportation staff and the voting public about the benefits of electric school buses in a quantified manner,” the website also noted.

“By charging on New York State’s increasingly renewable energy grid, electric school buses tap into a cheaper, cleaner and local energy source.”

For parents and school administrators who want to help their school districts purchase electric school buses, visit https://cure100.org/carbon-tracker/#:~:text=BEST%20Tool,2.5%20microns%20or%20smaller)%20emissions.

Michael Gold has had articles published in the New York Daily News, the Albany Times Union, and other newspapers, and The Hardy Society Journal, a British literary publication.