The bill (A1282) would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop a three-year pilot program for as many as 18 school districts in the Garden State to buy battery-powered buses and charging equipment. The state would appropriate $45 million — $15 million a year — to fund the program.
The Democratic-controlled assembly passed the Democratic-sponsored measure, 47-31, largely along party lines, at the Statehouse in Trenton on Thursday.
Supporters say the goal is to test how reliable and cost-effective it is to transition away from diesel-powered school buses.
Environmentalists have long warned that diesel buses spew pollution into the air and put students at greater risk for respiratory problems and other health issues. They say it’s especially an issue in urban areas where the air is already heavily polluted.
“We’re all talking about the future of our children, the future of generations to come,” said Assemblyman Sterley Stanley, D-Middlesex, a main sponsor.
But the bill sparked a fierce, nearly half-hour debate on the floor of the assembly on Thursday.
Freshman Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn, R-Monmouth, argued the state should instead spend more money on responding to students’ learning loss and mental health issues in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I thought by the fourth month of being here with you that we would have had bill after bill after bill making sure that we’re funding the learning loss, the mental health needs of our students,” said Flynn, a former school board member in both Nutley and Holmdel. “And today I’m looking at a bill to fund over $15 million for electric buses.”
Flynn then proposed what she called a “hostile amendment” to the proposal to address those issues.
“I will be heard on this bill,” she said.
The motion failed, 43-33.
Assembly Minority Leader Lou Greenwald, D-Camden, countered that the upcoming state budget includes “a record amount of funding” for public education. He also said electric buses are also more important now because of how high gas prices are in the U.S.
Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake, D-Essex, another sponsor, said this is about “saving our existence as humanity on earth.”
Other Republicans said they’re worried about spending money on the program in a state where property taxes are the highest in the nation, with the largest portion of tax bills going to schools.
Assemblyman Hal Wirths, R- Sussex, said this money should directly go to taxpayers instead.
“Put your money where your mouth is,” Wirths said. “I hope you’re driving electric cars if you think the taxpayers should pay for some Jetson bus that may come out and work in some infrastructure that can support them, but we need to return this money.”
Assemblyman Christian Barranco, R-Morris, said electric buses will “kill property taxes.”
“In November, they’re all gonna come for us,” Barranco said.
All 120 seats in the state Legislature are on the ballot in November 2023.
While school districts spend about $150,000 for each school bus, the initial cost of an electric bus is between $300,000 to $400,000.
But supporters say districts will save money in the end because electric buses need less fuel and aren’t as expensive to maintain.
Sponsors have also said they expected to receive funding from the $1 trillion federal infrastructure law, which could offset state funding for the program.
Meanwhile, a recent report from three environmental groups found school districts could get an extra benefit from using electric buses by selling unused battery power to electric grids while the vehicles are parked.
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Robert Auth, R- Bergen, questioned whether the technology is safe because electric buses in other states have had issues with not running properly.
“I don’t want to put our children where we’re gonna put them in a situation that’s more dangerous than they’re currently in,” Auth said.
Electric buses aren’t a new idea in New Jersey. The state DEP has already allocated $24.5 million to buy 77 electric buses with money from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and a settlement from Volkswagen. But they have been delayed because of supply-chain issues, according to a report by NJ Spotlight.
Other states, such as neighboring New York and Connecticut, have also begun moving toward electric buses.
Under this bill, half the participants and funding would go toward low-income, urban, or so-called environmental justice communities.
Environmentalists applauded the assembly for passing the bill Thursday. Anjuli Ramos-Buscot, director of the New Jersey chapter of of the Sierra Club, said children are “among the most vulnerable to health impacts from air pollution caused by diesel emissions.”
Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, said “it’s time to protect our kids’ health and our air quality by taking the first step to electrification.”
The bill must now be passed by the Democratic-controlled state Senate before Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, could decide whether to sign it into law. A version of it passed the Senate last year but was not passed by the assembly.
NJ Advance Media staff writer Larry Higgs contributed to this report.
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