Hochul signs ZEB bill favored by NYSSBA

On Board Online • January 13, 2025

By Matt DeLaus
Governmental Relations Counsel

Following nearly a year of advocacy by NYSSBA and partner education advocacy organizations, Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed legislation to speed up payments of transportation aid when school districts purchase or lease zero-emission school buses (ZEBs).

When the ZEB mandate was enacted in 2022, transportation aid was scheduled to be doled out to a district over 12 years (compared to five years for diesel buses). The 12-year timeframe was based on the state's assumption regarding the "period of probable usefulness" for electric buses.

However, ZEB batteries typically have a warranty of eight years.

"The expected lives of ZEBs are comparable to traditional buses," said NYSSBA Executive Director Robert Schneider. "Our members told us that they anticipated having to replace ZEBs before receiving full transportation aid for the buses that would be retired, and we brought that information to legislators."

After a bill passed both houses of the Legislature, more than 100 school board members engaged in NYSSBA's take action and sent messages to the governor, urging her to sign a bill to change the amortization period to eight years. In December, she did so.

"This new law is one of three significant and positive changes involving ZEBs that were made by state lawmakers in 2024 in direct response to advocacy by NYSSBA and other stakeholders," Schneider said. Two others were part of the state budget:

• A change was made to ensure that money received through the state Bus Incentive Program does not reduce transportation aid.
• Directives to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) are expected to improve coordination of the transition. First, NYSERDA was directed, along with other relevant state agencies, to evaluate charging needs in every region of the state, taking into account the needs involving school bus garages, fleets and local supervision. Second, NYSERDA was directed to create a "Zero-Emissions School Bus Resource Center," to centralize all information and support materials related to the transition.

"Despite these positive changes, school districts still face a high wall of challenges to transition to electric buses," Schneider said. Among the issues:

• Weak public support. Ten of 32 districts in 2024 failed to receive voter approval for ZEB purchase propositions.
• Power availability. About 15% of districts do not have the electrical capacity to support a single ZEB, according to a recent report by the Joint Utilities; many districts would have to spend millions of dollars to upgrade their electrical capacity.
• Infrastructure. Bus garages need to be significantly upgraded or replaced altogether in order to support ZEBs.
• Possible need for fleet expansion. ZEBs have less payload capacity compared to similar sized fossil fuel-powered buses, and studies show that manufacturers sometimes overestimate how far an electric bus can travel without recharging, particularly in cold conditions. This could mean districts will need more buses - and more drivers - to do the same amount of transportation.
• Rose-colored assumptions. When the mandate was put in place, there was an assumption that the price of electric buses would go down over time. But costs through a statewide contract are increasing faster than inflation.

Meanwhile, the top electric school bus manufacturer (both in terms of number of buses already delivered to districts and number of buses ordered by districts in the U.S.) has defaulted on its debts and been granted protection from creditors under Canadian law. In December, Lion Electric paused production in its U.S. plant and laid off most of its employees.

"The goal of reducing emissions is a good one," Schneider added. "But the implementation challenges for electric buses are daunting."

So far, electric buses are the only option; other forms of ZEBs appear to be years away from reaching the market.

"The bottom line is that, despite positive moves by the governor and Legislature, the current transition timeline and funding method remain unrealistic," Schneider said. "Our advocacy will continue, as we see other ways the transition could be made more feasible. We welcome involvement of more school boards and individual school board members in bringing our messages about the ZEB transition to local legislators across the state."