Students deserve a clean, healthy ride to school – and the transition must start with those most impacted.
In a typical school year, more than 20 million students ride the bus to school each day, taking more than seven billion combined trips. But right now, most of those school buses are running on polluting diesel fuel, and kids from underserved communities are bearing a disproportionate burden of the related emissions.
Today, over 90% of the school buses on the road are powered by diesel. That's a problem.
Diesel-burning school buses pose real problems:
- The exhaust from diesel-burning school buses is harmful to students’ physical health, putting them at risk for serious conditions like cancer and asthma.
- Diesel exhaust pollution is linked to negative cognitive development impacts, endangering students’ academic progress and learning.
- These diesel-burning school buses also emit high levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, directly contributing to climate change that increasingly threatens our children’s future.
- Communities of color face higher on-road air pollution, and students from Black households, low-income students and students with disabilities are all more likely to ride the school bus than their counterparts
But there’s good news.
Electric school buses have zero tailpipe emissions, reducing students’ exposure to the dangers of diesel exhaust pollution. They’re responsible for significantly lower levels of greenhouse gases than diesel-burning school buses and our research suggests that compared to a new diesel-burning school bus, a new electric school bus can save an average of $6,000 every year on operational expenditures, depending on circumstances.
Diesel exhaust pollution can cause asthma in children, endangering their health and causing them to miss school.
And best of all, they’re ready today: electric school buses are successfully operating in every part of the country and all types of climates throughout the U.S., including urban, rural and suburban communities – and with record federal and state funding, more electric school buses are on the way.
The challenge
Diesel exhaust is dangerous for kids. For decades, studies have shown that diesel exhaust pollution is linked to conditions ranging from asthma to cancer.
The facts are startling:
- Diesel exhaust pollution includes elevated levels of air pollutants including nitrogen oxides, which contribute to respiratory and heart disease.
- Diesel exhaust pollution is so dangerous, the World Health Organization has labeled it a known carcinogen.
- There is evidence that children are particularly susceptible to the negative health impacts of diesel exhaust.
- All told, one study found that the average impact of higher ambient air pollution levels on lung function was similar to that of exposure to maternal smoking.
As diesel-burning school buses drive their routes, these toxic air pollutants remain in the cabin of the vehicle – exposing children to harmful pollutants for extended periods of time.
In addition, as global emissions reach dangerous levels, the nation’s approximately half-million school buses continue to pump more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere – contributing to the dangers of climate change and threatening to leave current and future generations with a less safe and less habitable world.
Every student deserves a clean, healthy ride to and from school. That’s why it’s time for a rapid, equitable transition to electric school buses nationwide.
There is evidence that children are particularly susceptible to the negative health impacts of diesel exhaust.
The need for an equitable transition
Diesel exhaust pollution endangers us all, but the threat isn’t felt equally.
Decades of racist, discriminatory policies have left both communities of color and low-income communities disproportionately impacted by toxic air pollution. And when it comes to school transportation and on-road pollution, these disturbing trends persist:
- Communities of color face on-road fine particulate matter pollution that is 61% to 75% higher than for white residents.
- 60% of low-income students ride the bus to school, compared to 45% of non-low-income students, meaning they face more direct exposure to diesel exhaust pollution from these buses
- Students from Black households are also more likely to ride the bus to school than students from households of other races
To contribute to addressing these historic and ongoing wrongs, the transition away from diesel-burning school buses to electric school buses must be equitable. That means ensuring that the communities most impacted by diesel exhaust pollution have access to the benefits of electric school buses first – and that communities affected by this transition are engaged throughout the process.
As the only type of school bus not powered by a fossil fuel-burning engine, electric school buses have zero tailpipe emissions of any pollutant.
The electric school bus opportunity
Electric school buses represent a real opportunity to bring health, climate, air quality and grid resiliency benefits to every student and every community in America, starting with those most impacted by the dangers of diesel exhaust pollution.
With an equitable transition to electric school buses, communities can see the benefits of zero-tailpipe-emissions electric school buses in real-time:
- Air quality: As the only type of school bus not powered by a fossil fuel-burning engine, electric school buses have zero tailpipe emissions of any pollutant.
- Health: Electric school buses reduce students’ exposure to harmful health impacts of pollutants found in diesel exhaust pollution – including increased risk for cancer, asthma and heart disease.
- Climate: Electric school buses account for less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of diesel- or propane-burning buses, and they’re the only type of school bus for which emissions will decrease as grids transition to renewable energy sources. In fact, electrifying the full U.S. school bus fleet by would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9 million metric tons per year, the equivalent of taking 2 million cars off the roads.*
- Equity: by prioritizing communities that bear the disproportionate burden of diesel exhaust and on-road air pollution, the transition to electric school buses can contribute to correcting historically racist policies. Proactively considering the ripple effects of new technologies can make the school transportation, manufacturing and energy industries more equitable.
- Student achievement: reducing students’ exposure to air pollution from diesel-burning school buses can have positive and significant effects on student test scores – in some cases, on par with increased teacher experience levels.
- Cost savings: our research suggests that compared to a new diesel-burning school bus, a new electric school bus can save a school district around $100,000 in operational expenses in its lifetime, depending on circumstances.
- Grid resiliency: in some circumstances, electric school buses offer the ability to implement new vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies that support resilient, reliable electric grids that can also benefit school districts.
With historic levels of funding and financing now available for electric school buses – including the EPA’s groundbreaking $5 billion Clean School Bus Program as well as funding from states and utilities – communities across the country are already seeing the tangible benefits of electric school buses.
It’s clear: the electric school bus moment is here!
*Calculation using AFLEET (2020) and includes fuel lifecycle and vehicle operations. Uses the NREL Electrification Futures Study low cost renewables 2030 national average values, and assumes annual bus mileage of 14,084 miles, the same distribution of bus sizes found in the 2022 fleet orders, and no changes from current fuel efficiencies of either fuel type.