At the study session on December 4th, Todd Piccone presented the board with information about a State grant for $854,000 to purchase three new buses. The grant is to be voted on this Wednesday December 18th at the regular board meeting (link to agenda).
Should be good news but the facts for me show otherwise.
The grant is for three electric buses Type A that carry 10-16 passengers and three charging stations (installation, infrastructure and training). I know the district does need more buses but the grant requires that the district must SCRAP three diesel/fossil fuel buses.
Details matter and so wait there’s more!
The estimated cost to purchase the buses, install charging stations and training is approx. $1,434,000 which means a funding gap of $580,000
But wait there’s even more!
We have also been approved for a Federal grant in the amount of $420,000 which as of today we do not have the contract to read the fine print and approve. The federal grant if the EPA does fund will still leave a funding gap of $160,000 to be covered by TSD taxpayers! Maybe the gap is less but I cannot support grants that will most likely require the district to use YOUR money to cover the shortage.
The above means the board must vote to accept and approve the state grant BEFORE we have the federal grant contract to read, accept and approve.
The above numbers are estimates (best guesses) and ask yourself; “when was the last time that the government spent LESS then estimated”?
All this to buy electric buses that will be “fueled” by charging stations that receive power from natural gas or coal power plants and the bus itself is built using parts produced from fossil fuel. And then there is the EV battery that is filled with toxic items and damage the environment when mined. From the Green Car website:
The battery cells in EVs contain roughly 17 pounds of lithium carbonate, 77 pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, and 30 pounds of cobalt. The key component of EV batteries being lithium and demand for the material is at an all-time high.
That’s a problem as the discovery of new resources requires expert knowledge on where lithium resides on the earth’s surface and how it is concentrated, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Materials used in these batteries such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium are all extracted using environmentally-damaging methods. Nearly 500,000 gallons of water are used to extract one ton of lithium.
Yes it is true that the technology is changing, but let the private sector work out the bugs based on consumer market demands instead of using government money that has and continues to fuel inflation.
I would much rather have the $854,000 from the State to spend on items the district actually needs such as we could purchase four new Type A diesel buses for approx. $200k and use the rest based our classroom needs.
There are so many unknowns and best guesses that I simply cannot get comfortable supporting this state grant.
- State Grant Contract
- 12/4 Presentation
- RFI – 1 (request for information)
- RFI – 2
- As new information becomes available I will post