Electric school buses are a breath of fresh air for children | Nearly $1B in federal funding could help clean up the unequal health impacts of diesel pollution.

As a child in the 80's I remember my gag reflex kicking in every time I walked to my bus. The air was so bad that my body physically refused to let me take in a breath.

I expect soon I will see "diesel parties" where parents bring their kids to inhale diesel fumes from a running lifted pickup in a closed off garage.

Similar to how people I know advertised their gas stoves to everyone they know to bring their children to have an "illegal gas cooked meal" on weekends...

For those of you who haven't been in a school bus in years, do you remember how loud they are? Reducing diesel pollution is a win, but being in a less-noisy environment for however long each day is also a win.

As a cyclist and occasional user of public transit, I really like the idea of most buses eventually being at least plug-in hybrid-electric if not entirely battery electric. I'm curious about the mass difference between a diesel, diesel-electric, and battery-electric bus (after all, the heavier the vehicle, the harder it is on the road). I expect some of the fuel-and-maintenance-cost-savings from the bus fleet will have to go to road maintenance in the end, but I'd rather spend money that way (locally) than spend it on pumping fresh hot carbon out of foreign wellheads

Why not just make normal public transit? Like school busses aren't a thing here so I took the regular bus to school like everyone else, it's a lot more versatile too since people can take it to more places.

I could see this fit in perfectly with normal bus routes, but field trips and athletic events could be a challenge, especially for rural schools. Nothing that could not be planned around but possibly an extra cost (e.g. charter buses) or needing to keep the kids entertained while charging on the road.

I remember the school buses in one high school I went to running on propane. It's not as clean as electric, but it's cleaner than diesel... and at the time, an electric school bus would have been expensive, if not outright science fiction.

The money will purchase more than 2,700 vehicles to shuttle 7 million students in 37 states

Big buses...

Republicans are against it because they think children should be breathing diesel fumes and the ones who get ill from it didn't try hard enough.

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I love EVs and truly believe they're the future. But holy shit what must these monsters weigh? And, what's the environmental impact considering our current shitty battery tech?

I still support moving this direction because it creates the necessary infrastructure that can be leveraged by newer battery tech. And likely even with the batteries, it's better than diesel.

But the new batteries to make them lighter and less polluting can't come soon enough.

How is this gonna work when electric cars won't even run in icy weather