Recently, I have found myself reflecting not only as an emergency medicine physician, but also as a parent, on the toll diesel pollution takes on children across New York. My own child is one of the many students with asthma who rides a school bus each day. After long rides on the school bus, he complains about the fumes that trigger headaches and wheezing. The harms of diesel exhaust pollution are personal to me.
They’re also professional. As an emergency medicine physician, I treat patients every day who suffer from severe asthma attacks. These days, I’m reflecting on what more we can do in New York to reduce common asthma triggers, such as air pollution generated by the buses our kids ride twice a day during the school year.
Luckily for us and for our children, electric school buses are a feasible solution already at our fingertips. Rather than emitting cancerous fumes, electric school buses produce no emissions at all – no clouds of exhaust at the bus stop and no harmful pollutants onboard.
With that in mind, it’s especially concerning to see our state lawmakers kicking the can down the road on delivering a clean, healthy ride to school for kids across New York.
The vast majority of the nearly 50,000 school buses in New York run on diesel fuel – a known carcinogen. For the young passengers who depend on these buses to get to school, that means a bus stop flooded with diesel exhaust that can even follow them onboard. As they ride to school, they are exposed to pollutants that not only have links to asthma and other respiratory conditions, but negative impacts on academic outcomes, too.
What’s more, the hazards of school buses are an issue of equity and justice. Communities that have been historically disadvantaged are more likely to suffer from vehicle-based air pollution due to racist lending, transit, housing and zoning policies that concentrated Black and Brown communities closer to highways and other pollution sources. So too are the communities that house our school bus depots; in New York those tend to be the neighborhoods that have long suffered from high levels of air pollution and other environmental injustices.
By using electric school buses rather than diesel-burning school buses, New York stands to gain over $190 million every year in health benefits from cleaner air and climate benefits from reduced pollution – more than any other state in the U.S.
Yes, in the short term, the upfront cost of an electric bus is still higher than that of a diesel. But because electric school buses have lower maintenance and fuel costs, they can provide average savings of $100,000 for school districts over the lifetime of the bus, compared to diesel-burning school buses.
The electric school bus moment has already arrived in New York, as more than 10,000 students are already riding them to and from school. That’s why it’s been disheartening to also see calls for removal of funding for electric school buses in this year’s state budget. If lawmakers are serious about helping school districts succeed, the answer is continued funding and implementation support — not delaying cleaner air for children.
Our state lawmakers must support our existing zero emission school bus policy and ensure diesel school buses become a thing of the past by continuing to provide school districts with the funding, support and tools they need to succeed.
School districts can act too. Whether it’s beginning a fleet electrification study, filling out an application for funding, or something else, I’d urge all school districts and fleet operators across the state to take that first step toward delivering the tailpipe-emissions-free ride of an electric school bus to your communities. You’ll be glad you did.
Local communities also have an important role to play. As school districts across New York bring electric school bus purchases forward through local budget votes this month, residents should support these investments so districts can take advantage of available state and federal funding to put students on cleaner, healthier buses — often at the same or lower long-term cost than a diesel-burning bus.
And in the meantime, I will continue to fight alongside other parents and advocates to make sure our government provides adequate support to help your district successfully make the switch to school buses that are truly clean, safe and healthy for the kids and communities you serve.
Dr. Kate Watson is an emergency medicine physician in Syracuse, New York
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