[JustTheNews] Federal money is starting to flow for electric school buses, but the funds won’t cover all the costs of switching from diesel.
Electrifying Pennsylvania’s bus fleet – although logical in theory – proves less sensible, experts said Tuesday.
“Our industry already has been hit with a major threat … that threat is the electric school bus,” said Daniel Frye, owner of the Frye Transportation Group in Beaver County, during a hearing with the House Republican Policy Committee. “The price tag is four times more expensive than the current diesel school bus.”
Frye said small operators can’t afford electric buses — as well as rising prices for their diesel counterparts. In June 2022, he bought a diesel bus for $103,000, but by April 2023, a quote for “the same bus” came back at $143,000.
“There is a storm brewing and that is the immense increase in the operational cost due to the electric school bus,” Frye said.
Federal money is starting to flow for electric school buses, but the funds won’t cover all the costs of switching from diesel. In October, the Biden administration announced $1 billion would support the purchase of 2,300 electric school buses nationally. Another $4 billion would be distributed through 2026 for electric and low-emission buses powered with alternative fuels, such as propane or natural gas.
The lion’s share of that funding, though, may end up electric anyway. In 2022, the $1 billion for buses was meant to be split 50/50 between electric and low-emission buses, but was later revised to go 95% for electric “after an overwhelming number of requests from school districts for the electric option,” E&E News reported.
School districts who received those funds also got $20,000 for charging stations, but E&E News noted that the funds “might not go far enough to provide all the plugs and wires a bus depot needs.”
The federal grants might also increase costs for non-electric buses.
“The federal grant program: You take the $400,000 electric bus, and the grant is gonna fill the difference between that and the price of a new diesel (bus), which is why the price of new diesel is increasing rapidly,” Frye said.
Despite the cost issue, experts weren’t totally opposed to electric buses. Switching too quickly, however, comes with its own pitfalls.
“Let’s slow down, pump the brakes, and see how this will pan out, especially for school transportation that is funded by taxpayers,” said Aaron Sepkowski, president of Pocono Transportation and vice president of the Pennsylvania School Bus Association.
Todd Rittenhouse, owner of Rittenhouse Bus Lines, said he’s weighed the pros and cons of electrifying his fleet and was left with too many questions – especially in rural areas.
“We’ve looked at electric buses … the biggest thing to say is they don’t fit all applications,” he said.
He referenced Uniontown, a rural school district, being 52 miles long with an average route for a school bus being more than 100 miles long.
“Does an electric school bus with a possible range, on a good day, of 130 miles make it? Maybe not,” he said. “Those are the things you have to consider.”
“On top of that, for electric buses, the other issue we don’t understand yet because we don’t have enough data is the environmental conditions drastically affect the capacity of the batteries,” he added.
For city bus fleets, electrification has not always lived up to its promises, either.
Though electric buses can have lower maintenance and fuel costs, and lower emissions, they have their own mechanical issues. Cities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Madison, Wisconsin have had significant performance issues with their electric buses, as The Center Square previously reported.
#3
Make a rule that any day the bus runs out of juice before reaching the school, the kiddies on board get to skip school that day.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/06/2023 8:00 Comments ||
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#4
“On top of that, for electric buses, the other issue we don’t understand yet because we don’t have enough data is the environmental conditions drastically affect the capacity of the batteries,” he added.
...Mother Nature is gonna take care of that for you, trust me.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/06/2023 12:03 Comments ||
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#5
Keep them on the bus. Let them experience their green future.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/06/2023 12:03 Comments ||
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#7
Wait until it's cold out (which happens often during certain months in Pennsylvania) and they have to run the cab heaters (yay...electric!) to keep the kiddies warm.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/06/2023 14:48 Comments ||
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#8
If it's about energy saving, think how much they could save by closing the gummint skoolz entirely.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/06/2023 15:00 Comments ||
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#9
Might be cheaper to rebuild the neighborhood schools they consolidated in the 1970’s and have the kids just walk to school
[FoxNews] Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., is expected to be the next Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman following Gen. Mark Milley's departure.
President Biden is expected to recommend Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as Army Gen. Mark Milley's four-year term approaches its end.
If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, Brown, who currently serves as the chief of staff of the Air Force, would become the second black man in the position. Army Gen. Colin Powell, who was appointed to the post by former President George H.W. Bush in 1989, was the first.
Though Brown was long expected to become the 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Biden also interviewed Gen. David Berger, the 38th Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
05/06/2023 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#2
Charles Quinton Brown Jr. was born in 1962 ( age 58 years; as in 2020) in San Antonio, Texas. He attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock where he graduated from the Air Force Reserve Officers Training …
Seems the Air Force Academy with its decades of problems has become superfluous.
#6
So, Chuck swore on a Bible. Did he get a fatwa from his ayatollah, or will the oath to muzzizm be sworn in private?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/06/2023 12:35 Comments ||
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#7
I watched th entire BBC coverage, 4.5 hours, and aside from 2 wide shots of the Royals in attendance, never saw Harry except in the 4th row back. Great coverage of the parades and the massed formation behind the palace to cheer the new King was magnificent. Commentators were entirely audio only until the end.
The I looked at the ABC coverage, and Harry was much more prominent early on, as was an amazing percentage of the coverage with split screen so the commentators could be seen endlessly, and the insistence of ABC to make the commentary DIE was apparent. Sad that they felt the need to "woke up" something that had nothing to do with modern social transformation.
[Breitbart] Elon Musk’s Twitter has cut its workforce to the lowest level in years with only around 1,000 full-time employees remaining, according to anonymous sources familiar with the company. This comes in the wake of Musk’s aggressive staff cuts and a wave of resignations since he officially acquired the social media platform six months ago.
Business Insider reports that according to unnamed sources familiar with the business, Twitter’s employee count has experienced a severe reduction, hitting its lowest level in years, with only about 1,000 full-time workers remaining. Elon Musk has aggressively reduced the number of employees, including through layoffs and firings, as well as through a wave of resignations, since he formally acquired the social media platform six months ago.
And I thought firing a government employee was next to impossible.
[Blaze] Former Attorney General Bill Barr described it as a "horror show" when former President Donald Trump is "left to his own devices."
Barr — who served as attorney general during a portion of Trump's tenure after previously holding the post during a portion of George H.W. Bush's presidency — made the comment at an event in Cleveland, Ohio, after Geraldo Rivera asked whether Trump is fit to serve as president.
Barr responded by saying that for those who believe in the policies Trump espouses, the former president is "the last person who could actually execute them and achieve them." Barr claimed that Trump lacks the "discipline," the capacity for "linear thinking or setting priorities, ah, or how to get things done in the system. It is a horror show ... when he's left to his own devices," Barr asserted.
Barr continued, "You may want his policies. But Trump will not deliver Trump policies. He will deliver chaos, and, if anything lead to a backlash that will set his policies much further back than they otherwise would be."
Trump is running for president again, but Barr noted that he is "adamantly against Trump." Barr said that he thinks it would be a "tragedy" for the former president to become the GOP nominee.
#1
And yet, Billy Boy, after four years of Trumpian chaos, we were in much better shape than after two years of O'Bumbles third term.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/06/2023 4:53 Comments ||
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#2
Trump will forever be Blackballed by the Beltway Bandits and Swamp that actually rules in the background. Because he looked after America 1st, he has cost them years in implementing Global Government and $$$ Billions in family / Cartel income.
#4
I am afraid we are reaching the point where, in the Newly Reconstituted Republic™ (Faster, please!) all former gummint officials, elected, appointed or insinuated into service, will, upon leaving gummint service be given the choice of immediate euthanasia or exile to a island where no journalists will be allowed to visit.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/06/2023 7:58 Comments ||
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#11
He is not irreplaceable. All you Republican party members need to get a candidate I can vote for.
Give us an alternative who will secure the border and tell Xi Jinping to fuck off.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/06/2023 12:42 Comments ||
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#12
It is a horror show when Trump is running it. Absolutely. Its true horror for the socialists, grifters, power mongers, haters, and the rest of corrupt DC. Absolute and uncontrollable horror!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/06/2023 13:57 Comments ||
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#13
Barr lives in a world of good ‘ol boys. Protect each other and happy with being controlled opposition. If I listed Trumps actual, meaningful accomplishments here the list would the longest of any sitting president in our lifetime. They hate him because he exposed and embarrassed them. A guy like that isn’t supposed to be able to lead this country. You are supposed to pick from a selected group of rulers and the controlled opposition only..
#15
^ DeSantis would be a great nominee. The smears that the "Nobody but Trump, Evah™!" crowd are running are unseemly, false and, yes, are turning some people off Trump. As #s 9 and 10 point out, Trump needs no help in that department.
He's working overtime at it by his ownself.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/06/2023 16:39 Comments ||
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#16
The most horrible thing Trump did was not fire loyal-only-to-fellow-bureaucrats people like Barr.
China sees the people who are really running the US and using Presnident Alzheimers as a puppet and sees all the old wuxia novel villains like End of the T'ang Dynasty Corrupt Bureaucrat # 32723.
#17
He is not irreplaceable. All you Republican party members need to get a candidate I can vote for.
So you want a typical swamp politician to continue to increase the national debt instead of a capitalist who never held a political office until the Presidency because he was busy becoming an successful billionaire prior to 2016. This confirms why this generation is so stupid and deserves the corrupt Biden clan and the corrupt uni-party to rule over them.
Posted by: Ebbimp Lover of the Trolls5787 ||
05/06/2023 19:54 Comments ||
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#18
If he should be like Moses, who led the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery through the desert to the Promised Land, but died overlooking the border, that is still an outcome to be proud of. Ronald Reagan promised it could be done, and Donald Trump showed us how. There is an entire generation of Republican politicians who know it is their job to pick uo that baton and carry it to the finish line.
#20
Does anyone listen to Barr anymore; he was an impediment to cleaning up and reforming the Jusice Department. He had a shot at being great and blew it.
[PJ] We still don’t know for sure if Ron DeSantis is going to run. The rest of the field after Donald Trump is a bunch of weak controlled opposition Republicans including Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, John Bolton, and the immortal Asa Hutchinson. In light of all this, the Republican primary debates could end up being a major snoozefest. Tucker Carlson, however, has a tantalizingly different idea: he is considering hosting his own debate, outside of the Republic National Committee framework. Now that could liven things up considerably.
The snag that Carlson is still an employee of Fox News remains, but the Washington Post reported Thursday that if he is "willing to walk away from some of the millions that Fox is contractually obligated to pay him, if that would give him the flexibility to have a prominent voice in the 2024 election cycle." Bernie Sanders would tell Tucker that he has plenty of money already, so why not? If he does go this route, Carlson could "moderate his own GOP candidate forum, outside of the usual strictures of the Republican National Committee debate system."
That would be a breath of fresh air, as anyone who remembers the viciously biased performance of Chris Wallace in the first 2020 debate between Trump and Old Joe Biden can attest. Wallace did everything he could to sandbag Trump and let Old Joe get away with a cornucopia of lies, false denials, and false accusations. It was clear that Wallace was angling for the job he soon got at CNN, where he was a spectacular failure, and that he was eager in his debate "moderation" to make the doddering kleptocrat Biden look as good as possible, and the America-First president as bad as possible.
A debate with Tucker Carlson moderating would be an entirely different matter. It opens up the possibility of candidates, for the very first time in the history of modern presidential debates, being asked questions from a patriotic perspective and confronted about issues that the establishment media refuses to discuss. Instead of being led for the umpteenth time to the prepackaged conclusions that the Leftist political and media establishment demands that we accept, there might be an opportunity for candidates to think beyond sound bites and shibboleths and actually engage in some independent thought. Even in a debate featuring such lackluster establishment hacks as John Bolton and Asa Hutchinson, that could be positively scintillating.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Blaze] Former Attorney General 
