American Lung Association President: Electric School Buses Protect Kids' Health. Congress Should Continue To Support Them
This is still the experience of too many children today, as most of the half million school buses on the road are diesel-powered. While stronger pollution standards have made these vehicles cleaner than they used to be, they still spew exhaust that impacts student health and even learning outcomes. The toxic exhaust from diesel-burning buses is unsafe for students, drivers, and residents of the communities they drive through and park in.
An electric school bus is pictured.
An electric school bus is pictured.
Getty Images
There is a solution that reduces pollution exposure while improving kids' health: electric school buses, the only type of school bus with no tailpipe emissions. Over a quarter of a million students already ride these clean buses to school each day.
To ensure more children have the opportunity to ride on clean, electric school buses, I strongly urge federal lawmakers to preserve two critical tax incentives, the Qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit (45W), a tax credit that provides up to $40,000 for each delivered electric school bus, and the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (30C), which allows entities to claim a credit for up to 30 percent of the cost of qualified property, such as electric school bus charging infrastructure.
I have worked at the American Lung Association for more than 40 years and now serve as the president and CEO. For more than 50 years, we have known about the health impacts of vehicle emissions and the particularly harmful emissions of diesel engines. It is time—and our responsibility—to ensure that all children have a healthy ride to school.
According to the Lung Association's most recent State of the Air report, 46 percent of Americans—156.1 million people—are living in places that get failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. Diesel exhaust, in particular, is dangerous for everyone to breathe, even healthy adults, but children are especially sensitive to the variety of pollutants known to cause lung cancer and respiratory harm and impact cognitive development.
The health impacts of air pollution are not felt equally. The State of the Air report also found that a person of color is more than twice as likely to live in a community with a failing grade for all three measures of pollution covered in the report. Communities that have been historically disadvantaged are more likely to be exposed to vehicle-based air pollution due to lending, transit, housing, and zoning policies that concentrated Black and brown communities closer to highways and other pollution sources.
The good news is we already know one thing that can help: a widespread transition to zero-emission vehicles and electricity, including buses, would dramatically improve the health of children. According to another Lung Association report, the transition would prevent 2.79 million pediatric asthma attacks and millions of other respiratory symptoms and save over 500 infant lives by 2050.
More communities than ever have the opportunity to transition to clean, tailpipe-emissions-free electric school buses, thanks in large part to federal incentives like tax credits and grant programs.
Since 2021, the number of electric school buses on the road or on their way to school districts has increased almost tenfold, and 1,500 school districts have said yes to electric school buses across the nation. There's clear demand for electric school buses, but it's only just getting started and needs continued policy support to drive the transition. It is imperative that lawmakers protect incentives like the 45W and 30C tax credits, which are popular and utilized across the country to help keep the wheels turning.
Our kids deserve to live in a country where no student is forced to inhale toxic exhaust from their own bus just to get to and from school each day. With continued support from our elected officials, we can make it happen.
Harold Wimmer is president and CEO of the American Lung Association.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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