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American Lung Association President: Electric School Buses Protect Kids' Health. Congress Should Continue To Support Them

American Lung Association President: Electric School Buses Protect Kids' Health. Congress Should Continue To Support Them

Newsweek26-06-2025
For those of us who took the school bus as children, the smell of diesel exhaust is almost a core memory; I remember how it would linger in my nose and lungs as I rode to school, and the sight of the afternoon line of school buses shrouded in smoke from the exhaust. For me, the diesel smell seemed like an inconvenience, but I didn't know it was negatively impacting my health. For kids with asthma, the impacts were more apparent.
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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It's a year of rapid change, except when it comes to Trump's approval numbers, AP-NORC polling finds
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Socialism Was Dead. Trump Revived It.
Socialism Was Dead. Trump Revived It.

Atlantic

time29 minutes ago

  • Atlantic

Socialism Was Dead. Trump Revived It.

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Few if any of the Americans who use the term socialist would today defend Communist central planning. But as they criticize the many failings of contemporary American society, they tend to shirk the obvious counter-question: If not central planning, then what do they want? Liberals such as Bill and Hillary Clinton proposed to let markets create wealth, which governments would then tax to support social programs. If that's out of style, if something more radical is sought, then what might that something be? Merely Clintonism with higher taxes? Or a genuine alternative? How can a society that aspires to socialism produce the wealth it wants to redistribute if not by the same old capitalist methods of property, prices, and profits? The socialists of a century ago promised both a new way to create wealth and a new way to share it. The preeminent American socialist of the early 20th century, Eugene V. Debs, outlined that new system in speeches such as the one he delivered in Girard, Kansas, in 1908: We Socialists propose that society in its collective capacity shall produce, not for profit but in abundance to satisfy human wants … Every man and woman will then be economically free. They can, without let or hindrance, apply their labor, with the best machinery that can be devised, to all the natural resources, do the work of society and produce for all; and then receive in exchange a certificate of value equivalent to that of their production. Then society will improve its institutions in proportion to the progress of invention. Whether in the city or on the farm, all things productive will be carried forward on a gigantic scale. As soon as it was attempted, this breathtaking utopian vision bumped into a daunting challenge: Without market prices, how can any of those gigantic socialist enterprises know what to make or how to commit their resources? 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It exists purely as a new set of claims on existing modes of production: socialist apartments funded in effect by taxes on nonsocialist apartments, socialist grocery stores that do not have to pay the taxes or rent paid by nonsocialist grocery stores. The beneficiaries of these claims will not necessarily be society's poorest. New York City distributes affordable-housing units through a process that begins with a lottery but rapidly transforms into a test of skill, savvy, and connections. In the first place, New York favors applicants who work for the city, in itself a step that advantages middle-class people over the truly needy. Then, once the lucky lottery winners get their good news, they must assemble a mass of documents to prove their desirability as tenants—pay stubs, lease records, birth certificates. As an expert on the process explained to a real-estate website: 'Once you've been selected, it's all about being organized and efficient.' 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The progressive economist Joseph Stiglitz recently remarked, 'Trumponomics is ersatz capitalism.' The president and those around him are accumulating huge fortunes by unashamedly preying on the credulity of their followers. Trump insiders have used political power to harass regulatory agencies and cripple tax enforcement. Trump's big policy moves are accompanied by an avalanche of suspicious trades. 'Of the stock and stock fund sales administration officials reported between Jan. 20 and April 30, 90% fell within 10 days of the tariff announcements,' USA Today reported last week. The New York Times suggested in April that if Trump seems to care little about crashing the stock market but a lot about the bond market, that may be explained by his own holdings: few stocks, many bonds. (Unlike most past presidents, Trump has not put his holdings in a blind trust.) While Trump's behavior discredits markets, his rhetoric vilifies markets. 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It's a year of rapid change, except when it comes to Trump's approval numbers, AP-NORC polling finds
It's a year of rapid change, except when it comes to Trump's approval numbers, AP-NORC polling finds

Hamilton Spectator

time42 minutes ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

It's a year of rapid change, except when it comes to Trump's approval numbers, AP-NORC polling finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eric Hildenbrand has noticed prices continue to rise this year, even with President Donald Trump in the White House. He doesn't blame Trump, his choice for president in 2024, but says Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats who control his home state, California, are at fault. 'You can't compare California with the rest of the country,' said Hildenbrand, who is 76 and lives in San Diego. 'I don't know what's going on in the rest of the country. It seems like prices are dropping. Things are getting better, but I don't necessarily see it here.' Voters like Hildenbrand, whose support of the Republican president is unwavering, help explain Trump's polling numbers and how they have differed from other presidents' polling trajectory in significant ways. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in March found that 42% of U.S. adults approved of Trump's job performance. That is a lower rating than those of other recent presidents at the beginning of their second terms, including Democrat Barack Obama and Republican George W. Bush. The most recent AP-NORC poll, from July, puts Trump at 40% approval. While that is not a meaningful change from March, there is some evidence that Trump's support may be softening, at least on the margins. The July poll showed a slight decrease in approval of his handling of immigration since earlier in the year. Some other pollsters, such as Gallup , show a downward slide in overall approval since slightly earlier in his term, in January. But even those shifts are within a relatively narrow range, which is typical for Trump. The new AP-NORC polling tracker shows that Trump's favorability rating has remained largely steady since the end of his first term, with between 33% and 43% of U.S. adults saying they viewed him favorably across more than five years. Those long-term trends underscore that Trump has many steadfast opponents. But loyal supporters also help explain why views of the president are hard to change even as he pursues policies that most Americans do not support, using an approach that many find abrasive. Persistently low approval of Trump's job performance Trump has not had a traditional honeymoon period in his second term. He did not in his first, either. An AP-NORC poll conducted in March 2017 , two months into his first term, showed that 42% of Americans 'somewhat' or 'strongly' approved of his performance. That is largely where his approval rating stayed over the course of the next four years. The recent slippage on immigration is particularly significant because that issue was a major strength for Trump in the 2024 election. Earlier in his second term, it was also one of the few areas where he was outperforming his overall approval. In March, about half of U.S. adults approved of his handling of immigration. But the July AP-NORC poll found his approval on immigration at 43%, in line with his overall approval rating. Other recent polls show growing discontent with Trump's approach on immigration. A CNN/SSRS poll found that 55% of U.S. adults say the president has gone too far when it comes to deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally, an increase of 10 percentage points since February. 'I understand wanting to get rid of illegal immigrants, but the way that's being done is very aggressive,' said Donovan Baldwin, 18, of Asheboro, North Carolina, who did not vote in the 2024 election. 'And that's why people are protesting because it comes off as aggression. It's not right.' Ratings of Trump's handling of the economy, which were more positive during his first term, have been persistently negative in his second term. The July poll found that few Americans think Trump's policies have benefited them so far. Even if he is not a fan of everything Trump has done so far, Brian Nichols, 58, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is giving him the benefit of the doubt. Nichols, who voted for Trump in 2024, likes what he is seeing from the president overall, though he has his concerns both on style and substance, particularly Trump's social media presence and his on-again, off-again tariffs. Nichols also does not like the push to eliminate federal agencies such as the Education Department. Despite his occasional disagreements with Trump, though, Nichols said he wants to give the president space to do his job, and he trusts the House and Senate, now run by Republicans, to act as a safeguard. 'We put him into office for a reason, and we should be trusting that he's doing the job for the best of America,' Nichols said. Overall views of Trump have been fairly steady since 2019 Trump has spent the past six months pushing far-reaching and often unpopular policies. Earlier this year, Americans were bracing themselves for higher prices as a result of his approach to tariffs. The July poll found that most people think Trump's tax and spending bill will benefit the wealthy, while few think it will pay dividends for the middle class or people like them. Discomfort with individual policies may not translate into wholesale changes in views of Trump, though. Those have largely been constant through years of turmoil, with his favorability rating staying within a 10-percentage point range through the COVID-19 pandemic, a felony conviction and attempted assassination. To some of his supporters, the benefits of his presidency far outweigh the costs. Kim Schultz, 62, of Springhill, Florida said she is thrilled with just about everything Trump is doing as president, particularly his aggressive moves to deport anyone living in the country illegally. Even if Trump's tariffs eventually take effect and push prices up, she said she will not be alarmed. 'I've always had the opinion that if the tariffs are going to cost me a little bit more here and there, I don't have a problem with that,' she said. Across the country, Hildenbrand dislikes Trump's personality and his penchant for insults, including those directed at foreign leaders. But he thinks Trump is making things happen. 'More or less, to me, he's showing that he's on the right track,' he said. 'I'm not in favor of Trump's personality, but I am in favor of what he's getting done.' ___ Cooper reported from Phoenix. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .

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