Jonathan Binder, Deputy Commissioner
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Air Resources, Office of Climate Change
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233
Dear Mr. Binder:
On behalf of the New York State School Bus Distributors Association (NYSBDA), I would like to thank you for taking the time to discuss the devastating impact that New York’s Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) regulations will have on school districts, school bus distributors, and our state’s school transportation system. This letter serves as our official request to exempt school buses from New York’s Advanced Clean Truck regulations (6 NYCRR 218-4).
New York’s Advanced Clean Truck rules, while good intentioned, will have a devastating effect on the state’s school bus distributors and will hinder our ability to reach the Governor’s environmental goals. We respectfully urge the Department of Environmental Conservation to review the following information and exercise its authority to utilize enforcement discretion with respect to provisions of New York’s Advanced Clean Truck rules which are set to take effect in 2025 and ask that you exempt the purchase of school buses in New York State for the following reasons.
- First, many school districts across the state are unable to purchase enough electric school buses to meet ACT purchase quotas due to insufficient state funding, lack of infrastructure and equipment, significant delays in establishing adequate power supply, and lack of voter approval.
- Second, most of New York’s school bus distributors will suffer significant layoffs or go out of business due to ACT’s arbitrary vehicle purchase quotas and subsequent lack of school bus sales given nearly 100% of a school bus distributors business is derived from school bus sales.
- Lastly, New York’s ACT rules are unnecessary given New York State’s all-electric school bus mandate which is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2027 and requires every school bus purchased to be powered by electricity.
Additionally, like emergency vehicles, snowplows, and street cleaners, which have been exempted from this policy, school buses in New York State provide an inimitable vital public service to school districts and parents by providing safe, efficient, and clean transportation to and from school for more than 2.3 million children each day. Additionally, school buses only account for less than .0038 of all registered vehicles on the road in New York State.
Most, if not all, of New York’s 42,000 school buses currently comply with the EPA’s 2010 clean air standards which require them to produce near-zero harmful emissions. School buses, while an excellent platform for electrification are already among the cleanest vehicles on the road and produce less CO2 per passenger than most electric passenger cars when considering their entire carbon impact. Furthermore, a school bus does the work of approximately 36 automobiles helping to reduce harmful emissions that would be produced by automobiles used to bring children to and from school. Not to mention, the yellow school bus is the safest way for a student to get to and from school each day accounting for less than 2% of the fatalities on our roads each year.
School transportation is clearly a unique and critical sector of New York’s overall transportation market and requires a judicious approach when applying or contemplating air quality policies which focus on purchase quotas while ignoring the market’s (school districts) inability to purchase school buses within an arbitrary timeline. Given the critical role school buses play in the success of our educational system, our economy, and the environment, we feel it is more than reasonable for DEC to grant an exemption to New York’s ACT rules.
In 2022, the industry warned Governor Hochul and the Legislature that electric school bus policies which failed to incorporate valuable insight from New York’s school transportation industry stakeholders would result in catastrophic consequences to school districts and the industry. In just two short years, we have witnessed numerous EV school bus and equipment start-up companies and technologies fail leaving school districts, school bus contractors, and distributors with millions of dollars in inadequate infrastructure, defunct equipment, and stranded costs. Most alarming, in October of this year, we sadly witnessed New York’s only school bus manufacturer close its doors due to the uncertainty of New York’s unrealistic and poorly planned electric school bus mandate. Trans Tech Bus’s closing was tragic, not only because we lost nearly 80 manufacturing jobs and the company that launched the nation’s first mass-produced electric school bus, but because there are only a handful of school bus manufacturers worldwide – and New York was home to one of them. The company was sold, the jobs were lost, and now the school buses are being built in Indiana.
The inability for school districts to purchase electric or clean diesel, gas, propane, or CNG school buses under New York ACT will eventually lead to school districts operating older school buses which require more service and maintenance and will eventually lead school districts to reducing or eliminating school transportation service all together. Without school transportation services, parents and caregivers will be forced to drive their children to school or put them on public transit which presents serious safety concerns.
We are sounding the alarm once again, please listen to our request and exempt school buses from ACT and thus provide school districts and the industry with time to adapt to New York’s impending electric school bus mandate, which requires all school buses sold in the state to be electric beginning in 2027. The state cannot afford competing electric school bus regulations and laws. While ACT is well intentioned, in the context of New York’s electric school bus mandate, it is redundant and therefore unnecessary. We will get to a zero-emission school bus fleet, but ACT is not the policy that will get us there.
It is widely known that New York’s school bus distributors play a vital role in assisting school districts and private school bus contractors in transitioning to zero-emission school buses. It is a responsibility we take very seriously especially when balancing the need for safe, reliable, and cost-effective student transportation against meeting our state’s climate goals. As one of New York’s most successful public-private partnerships, school bus distributors and school districts work together to ensure that more than 2.3 million children get to and from school safely each day. School bus distributors save school districts and the state hundreds of millions of dollars each year by providing regional sales and support, parts inventory, vehicle service and maintenance, and free product training and technical education services to school districts. Without this invaluable public-private partnership and support network, school districts and the state would be forced to spend billions of dollars to move and maintain these services in-house.
Additionally, New York’s school bus distributors sell and support school bus brands that represent 99% of all electric and near-zero emission school buses sold and operating in North America and because of this are critical to our state’s transition to a zero-emission school bus fleet. In short, electrifying the state’s school transportation system will not happen without the existence of this unique public-private partnership between school districts and New York’s school bus distributors.
After numerous in-depth discussions with our school district partners across the state, school bus contractors, our school bus manufacturers, power companies, EV equipment suppliers, and various state agencies it is clear school buses must be exempted from New York’s Advanced Clean Truck rules. Without an exemption, ACT will devastate our industry by forcing most, if not all, of the state’s school bus distributors out of business and would significantly stall, if not prevent, New York’s transition to a zero-emission school bus fleet in the timeframe put forth by Governor Hochul.
Thank you for considering this exemption request. We stand ready to work with the Department of Environmental Conservation and look forward to continuing to work with Governor Hochul’s administration to electrify New York’s school bus fleet.
Respectfully,
Robert Reichenbach
President
NYS Bus Distributors Association and Bird Bus Sales
Cc:
Governor Hochul
Interim Commission Maher, Department of Environmental Conservation
Assemblyman Heastie, Speaker
Senator Stewart Cousins, Majority Leader
Senator Mayer, Education Committee Chairwoman
Assemblyman Benedetto, Education Committee Chairman
Council of School Superintendents
New York State School Boards Association
Allegiance School Bus Sales
Leonard Bus Sales
Matthews Bus Sales
Nesco Bus
New York Bus Sales
