Our kids deserve a safe ride to school. School buses might be the safest mode of transportation, but are they the healthiest? Getting an education shouldn’t include a daily dose of toxic pollution or increase the chances that kids will get sick.
During Delaware Interfaith Power & Light’s (DeIPL) recent “Climate Conversation,” organized in partnership with Energize Delaware (energizedelaware.org) and the United Way of Delaware, on April 21, the subject was “The Electric Bus Solution.”
We know that it is time for our iconic yellow bus to go green. Every day, 25 million American children ride buses that run on dirty diesel engines or natural gas, jeopardizing their health. On the contrary, electric school buses can help protect children’s health, while assisting states like Delaware in reaching its climate and environmental justice goals.
Our esteemed guest speakers discussed the problem, solution, implementation and the bridge connecting the three. Dr. Anna Quisel, a retired ChristianaCare physician, highlighted the health benefits of electrifying school buses.
“Children are uniquely vulnerable to pollution because their bodily systems are developing, and they eat more, drink more and breathe more in proportion to their body size,” she said. As a result, bus riders inhale more toxic air. Their underdeveloped kidneys can detoxify it relatively less.
What alarmed me — a mother of two school-going children, 12- and 14-year-olds — was what Anna shared next.
"The air in fossil fuel-powered bus cabins is dirtier than ambient air. Air in buses has 3-12 times higher levels of PM2.5 (small particulate matter) than ambient air that penetrates deep into our lungs. Air in school buses leads to 2-3 times more exhaust exposure than in cars. School buses have an outsize impact in neighborhoods, especially urban neighborhoods."
Before finishing, Anna powerfully correlated combustion exposure to children’s health problems — particularly in urban areas — like asthma, autism, attention deficit disorder, preterm birth, low birth weight and long-term cancer risks.
Alison Wiley, manager of the Electrification, Education and Equity Project of The Environmental Center, writes a newsletter (electricschoolbus.org) and engages with the school districts to convince them to start electrifying their buses.
“There are around half a million school buses in the country, and 95% of them are diesel,” in a nation of 13,500 school districts, she said.
Alison struck a chord of hope before yielding to her other “wonderful fellow panelists.” “The good news is that there is a lot of federal funding right now coming from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Five billion dollars over the next five years, half of which is only for the electric school buses. ... It is my job to help schools apply for this funding.”
Richard Johnson, strategic accounts manager, Nuvve Holding of California (intelligently electrifying the planet) and University of Delaware grid-integrated vehicle researcher, talked about how locally developed cool technology, in which he played a pioneering role, can not only help electrify buses but also reduce their operating and maintenance costs. You can even make money off them.
Electric buses can significantly benefit children with disabilities. Francine Davis-Motley, communications coordinator, United Methodist Women, Wilmington, and member of the Justice for All Campaign, who works with children with multiple disabilities, informed us that electric buses could reduce these students’ absentee rates and better their health and lives. She also pointed out the disproportionate impacts of diesel buses on communities of color.
Black kids were three times more likely to die from asthma than White kids. Could changing how kids are bused to school bring some relief?
So far, the conversation had established that there are climate, health, operational and maintenance benefits of transitioning to electric buses, so why isn’t the transition happening?
Electric buses today cost three times more.
Tim Farquer, superintendent, Williamsfield Schools, Illinois, and electric school bus senior adviser, World Resource Institute, shared the mantra with which to overcome “price is the barrier” though “spirit is there.” His school and seven other schools in central Illinois formed a coalition to work toward the electric school buses’ goal. His message to everyone: Form coalitions.
Tim also shared how a school can become a microgrid with an electric bus. Alison is willing to help school districts write their grant applications.
Any interested reader can watch the whole conversation on YouTube here: tinyurl.com/xwx7zkuu.
Shweta Arya is the executive director of Delaware Interfaith Power & Light. To learn more about its work and other upcoming events, visit delawareipl.org.
