An electric school bus, leased by Beverly Public Schools in Beverly, Mass., rests in a bus yard, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021, in Beverly, Mass. The district is planning to convert half its 44-bus fleet to electric by 2025 and the rest by 2030. Their transition is part of a trend in districts across the country to shift from diesel to electric school buses to improve air quality and combat climate change. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)
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The Big Story
California speeds up switch to EV school buses
The Golden State is kicking off the academic year by directing $500 million to school districts in a push to swap out aging buses with zero-emission models.
“This is yet another record state investment that puts the health of our kids and communities first,” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said in a statement Tuesday.
The new initiative will finance the deployment of 1,000 clean school buses on the road — on top of the 1,100 already there and the 1,200 in the pipeline, according to the governor’s office.
School districts and other educational entities seeking to revamp obsolete fleets are eligible to apply for funds through the state’s Zero-Emissions School Bus and Infrastructure program, through Sept. 30.
“Children are especially vulnerable to the impacts of diesel pollution, so transitioning to clean school buses is key to protecting our kids’ health,” Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), said in a statement.
The program is a collaboration between CARB and the California Energy Commission, under the administration of CALSTART, a transportation nonprofit.
A shift to zero-emission buses may be critical to California’s ambitions of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 and to student health, according to CARB.
For example, a CARB-funded study showed that although kids typically spend less than 10 percent of their day on buses, those commutes are responsible for about 33 percent of their daily exposure to certain air pollutants.
Applicants for the new funds can receive up to $375,000 to replace their internal combustion engine buses, as well as up to $95,000 for necessary charging infrastructure, per the program.
“Zero-emission school buses not only help clean the air of harmful soot and smog, but will help address climate change,” said Energy Commissioner Patty Monahan.
California regulators, she continued, are looking forward to helping school districts “achieve maximum air quality benefits from these buses.”
Welcome to The Hill’s Sustainability newsletter, I’m Sharon Udasin — every week we follow the latest moves in the growing battle over sustainability in the U.S. and around the world.
Correction: Last week’s newsletter mixed up the affiliation of study co-author Neil Sehgal, who is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.
The widespread use of pesticides may be contributing to the sharp decline in wild bee populations, a new study has found. While there are many reasons for the global bee population downswing, the surging application of two specific pesticides has been particularly influential in these dynamics, according to the study, published Tuesday in Nature Sustainability. Those two compounds, neonicotinoid and pyrethroid, have become …
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will by 2027 power data centers using geothermal energy storage, according to a power purchase deal announced Monday. Meta’s partner in the deal, Sage Geosystems, is a company run by three former Shell Oil executives who have sought to use their experience in drilling and fracking wells to build out forms of energy storage that use cavities within the earth as a kind of battery that …
The raging wildfires that have become a mainstay in certain California communities are not only devastating family dwellings — they are also impeding Californians from procuring the insurance necessary to protect these homes in the future. Aiming to both quell soaring prices and bring back firms that have left the Golden State, regulators are proposing sweeping reforms that they believe could revive a competitive insurance …
Vanishing glaciers. Newly ice-free stretches in the Arctic. Record droughts punctuated by record deluges. A hurricane, supercharged by hot Pacific water, that lasted six weeks. And across the globe, implacable, record-breaking heat. In 2023, record production and burning of fossil fuels poured unprecedented amounts of energy into the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, helping to spur …
About 200 South Korean youth are anticipating a Thursday ruling that they believe could steer their nation’s future climate change policies.
Activism from infancy: The activists, who filed their case in 2020, argued that the government is violating its citizens’ rights by not effectively combatting climate change, according to Reuters.
Among the 200 plaintiffs are young environmentalists and even infants.
The decision will occur in South Korea’s Constitutional Court.
Stepping up efforts: “Picketing on streets, policy proposals, these campaigns weren’t enough to bring about real changes,” 19-year-old Yoon Hyeonjeong, one of the plaintiffs, told Reuters.
Setting regional precedent: Thursday’s decision will be the first high court ruling on a government’s climate action in Asia, Reuters reported.
Climate advocacy groups believe that this case could set a precedent, as similar suits have been filed in Taiwan and Japan.
Europe’s top human rights court in April ruled that Switzerland had violated its citizens’ rights by providing inadequate protections against climate change.
Meeting global goals: The Korean government has pledged to slash annual greenhouse gases in 2030 by 24 percent, compared to 2017 levels, according to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law’s Climate Case Chart.
The relevant policy, the Framework Act on Low Carbon, Green Growth, was last amended in 2019.
The petitioners, however, have argued that this goal is insufficient to attain global ambitions.
Focus on fossil fuels: The plaintiffs’ most recent brief, filed in April 2021, alleged that the climate change law is failing to protect their basic rights, per the Sabin Center.
Yoon told Reuters that she is calling for an end to fossil fuel usage, adding that climate-induced temperature spikes are affecting people’s lives.
“We already have tools to cut carbon emissions. That is, stop using fossil fuels,” she said.
On Our Radar
Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:
This year’s Climate Week NYC, which kicks off in just a few weeks, is making headlines after an announcement that Prince Harry will be attending various sessions during the series. Two of those events will have a connection to his late mother, Princess Diana, Vanity Fair reported. Prince Harry’s New York visit coincides with his brother Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which occurs on Sept. 24. Prince William’s attendance this year, however, has not been announced, according to Newsweek.
Left-leaning environmental advocacy group Sunrise Movement said Wednesday it will conduct voter outreach on behalf of Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign, but it stopped short of an endorsement.
Last year’s Canadian wildfires, which blanketed much of the eastern U.S. in smog, released more carbon emissions than all but three countries worldwide, according to research published Wednesday.
