FCPS gets 42 electric school buses
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Fairfax County Public Schools $16.5 million for 42 new electric school buses.
The funds come from the Clean School Bus Program which was included in the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted during the Biden administration.
“Every day, thousands of students, staff, and parents are in and around school buses, exposed by no choice of their own, to diesel exhaust and other toxins. That changes today,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly on April 17 at an event celebrating the grant at Lorton Station Elementary School.
“Thanks to the EPA’s Clean School Bus grant, this community will receive a boost in its efforts to reduce emissions through sustainable transportation, marking a significant investment that will lead to cleaner air, healthier students, and a greener tomorrow,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz.
12 responses to “FCPS gets 42 electric school buses”
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What a waste of taxpayers’ money, in my opinion.
How would you perfer it to be spent then
Totally agree Gerald!
This is ridiculous. The buses cost at least 3X that of a diesel bus and are not reliable. Electric buses and other EVs are not good for the environment due to what’s required to manufacture the batteries and then dispose of them at the end of their useful life. This is just a “feel good” political exercise for people who do not know any better.
This has been proven false multiple times. The carbon footprint of EVs is a fraction of comparable gas cars, even when considering their manufacture and disposal. EVs have a break even point about 2 years when compared to their gas counterparts.
I personally hope these EV busses come to mason district. We have less greenery to deal with the diesel exhaust, so having no tailpipe emissions would be welcome here.
Question: Why is lithium not mined in the U.S.?
Answer: Extracting lithium from the salty, mineral-rich water in brine aquifers is a water-intensive process that poses risks to groundwater levels and can create other environmental problems.
Yes, it’s true that EV results in less CO2 emission than fossil-fueled cars. That’s why people tried to make a case for EV. According to the source from WSJ, however, “lithium-ion battery mining and production are worse for the climate than the production of fossil fuel vehicle batteries. Production of the average lithium-ion battery uses three times more cumulative energy demand (CED) compared to a generic battery” (2023). Thus, any reduction in CO2 emission will be offset in the gigantic lithium battery production for the EV, at least at this time. Unless there’s more efficient way to generate and dispose lithium battery more effectively, any “positive” news about EV manufacturing and disposal is from rudimentary data and endorsed by EV manufacturers, developers, and policy makers who receive endorsement and make money off the program.
You actually pull the thread on any of that data you cite? the WSJ article is making a direct comparison to a very clean running EU diesel (big fan btw), so let’s not extrapolate that to all cars, particularly what the typical American drives. Also, it uses EU driving mileage to compute CO2/km, which again is substantially less than most Americans. You pull the thread on CED? that graph (not from WSJ) is not present AT ALL in that paper on energy demand from manufacture of lithium cells, which has a very different focus than your messaging here. Man, rather than just spout facts from websites that fit your narrative, do a bit of digging to see where the info comes from, you’ll find the basic research rarely aligns with the narrative you choose to ingest then put forth.
42 evs and slums like fairmont still exist lmaoooo 😂
Can you please translate what this comment is supposed to mean?
This is great news! School buses are ideal for electrification, and will make students”, drivers’, & administrators’ lives easier, quieter & cleaner.
Until they break down.