The wheels on the Biden administration’s electric school buses aren’t always going ‘round, a new House committee report claims, calling the administration’s efforts to increase the number of electric school buses nationwide “a failure.”
In a 51-page report released Tuesday evening, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations released its findings after a yearlong investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s electric school bus program.
The Clean School Bus program was initially supported by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021, which earmarked $5 billion over five years to primarily replace existing buses, often powered with diesel, with zero-emission and clean energy alternatives such as electric, propane, or compressed natural gas. Vice President Kamala Harris announced the first round of investments and rebates in October 2022.
At the time, she called the program “a step forward in our nation’s commitment to be a leader on these issues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to invest in our economy, to invest in job creation, to invest in building the skills of America’s workforce.”
However, the report now indicates that the program has failed to fulfill those promises, pointing to extensive costs, delays in delivery, and failed reliability in the buses.
Specifically, the report found that electric school buses are priced much higher than the alternatives, costing an average of $381,190. The average full-sized diesel school bus was found to cost around $100,000. Even propane and compressed natural gas-powered buses cost less, at around $150,774 and $140,000 respectively.
But, the costs don’t stop there. The report said these baseline costs don’t cover any expenses for additional infrastructure like charging stations for the vehicles. It pointed to a case in Michigan, where Ann Arbor Public School reportedly had expected to spend around $50,000 on charging hubs for four electric buses. However, the district ultimately shelled out nearly $200,000.
The report claimed there have further been problems with the buses’ reliability. It cited New York Association for Pupil Transportation Executive Director David Christopher, who has claimed electric buses currently have a failure rate of around 20%. Meanwhile, failure rates for diesel school buses are estimated to be around 1%-2%.
Several Republican committee members lambasted the program in a statement released in tandem with the report, claiming it wasted people’s tax dollars.
“It is clear the $5 billion Clean School Bus Program is overall a failure and, in many cases, a waste of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars,” Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Morgan Griffith (R-VA), and Earl J. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA), said in a joint statement.
They claimed that the program supports Chinese dominance over the electric vehicle market in the United States. The lawmakers also claimed the program increased risks for fraud while incentivizing schools to use electric buses when they otherwise would not.
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“It’s also important to note that the EPA refuses to tell us how many of these school buses are on the road. As the official tasked with ensuring the success of the program, Vice President Harris bears great responsibility for its significant shortcomings,” they said.
The EPA did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.