Welcome to Brain Stuff, a production of I-Hart Radio.

Hey, Brain Stuff, Lauren Volgabaum here.

America's famous yellow school buses have been slowly going electric, but more still will

be plugging in soon thanks in large part to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure

bill passed by the U.S. Senate August 10th of 2021.

While the bill has not yet been passed into law, many in the sustainable transportation

community are already excited about what this bill could mean for the possibility of electrifying

more of the U.S. fleet of 480,000 school buses, and how that could help lower emissions

and improve air quality.

Of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, $2.5 billion is earmarked for zero emissions

buses, enough for roughly $11,000 electric vehicles, and another $2.5 billion for low-emission

buses, which could be fueled by natural gas or propane.

While this may seem like a lot of money, it's significantly less than what President

Joe Biden initially proposed in March of this year, which was $174 billion lump sum to

boost the electric vehicle market, including 96,000 school buses, instead of the $11,000

that the bill would now cover.

So why school buses?

There are a lot of reasons it makes sense for school buses to go electric.

At first, most new electric buses have a range of up to 120 miles, that's 190 kilometers,

on a single charge, which is plenty far enough for the average school bus route.

In second, some charging systems can charge a bus in just 90 minutes, plus electric buses

also require a lot less maintenance than their diesel counterparts.

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