Rural California school district pushes back on electric bus mandate
Lassen High School Superintendent Morgan Nugent joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss why the Biden administration's initiative may not be feasible for his rural school district.
A rural California school district faces uphill challenges thanks to a statewide mandate requiring all new school buses to be electric beginning in 2035, with one local school official warning the new vehicles could leave kids stranded due to the long-distance drive.
"There's nowhere we can plug in these buses on the ground to get to these [long distance] locations, which then puts our kids at risk across the state," Morgan Nugent, superintendent at Lassen Union High School in northern California told "Fox & Friends First" on Wednesday.
"We have districts who live in some very extreme temperatures. Bridgeport, California's a great example where you're looking at 40 below zero, sometimes in some different locations," he continued.
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A California school superintendent is warning that the state's electric bus mandate, slated to go into effect in 2035, will harm rural communities. (iStock)
"If these buses break down in between those areas, there is no heat for those kids, and we have to look at that safety situation."
Assembly Bill 579, signed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, will require "100% of all newly purchased or contracted schoolbuses of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to be zero-emission vehicles, where feasible."
The requirement makes the Golden State the fifth in the nation – behind Connecticut, Maryland, Maine and New York – to mandate the transition away from the internal combustion engine.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off on AB 579 last year. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)
Nugent noted some of his community's routes are over 40 to 50 miles one way and sporting events could be up to 220 miles. Trips to Redding, California, pose a particular challenge.
"We're looking at about 120 miles to get there," he said. "And, on State Route 44, we're literally out in the area where there's no cell phone service, nor is there any spot to go ahead and put in the charging station."
The district currently has four electric buses to work with, but according to Nugent, each bus can only go about 93 miles on one charge.
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California AB 579 will require "100% of all newly purchased or contracted schoolbuses of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to be zero-emission vehicles, where feasible." (Fox News)
"The idea being to go and help put our kids on these buses for these long trips means that we would have to swap out buses two or three different times just to get to a game, or going back to almost the situation of the Pony Express days, where we would end up switching out our horses, or now our electric buses, to go ahead and get our kids to these sporting events," he said.
The Biden administration announced this week it will be dispersing nearly another billion dollars in federal grants for school districts nationwide to decarbonize their bus fleets, despite recent EPA inspector general findings casting doubt on charging infrastructure.
Nugent said his district has been unable to purchase more diesel-powered buses for the state mandate.
"They're saying that you have ability to up to 2035 [to buy them]. At this time, previously, we were unable to buy new diesel buses after last year. So it's a situation where, yes, they're telling the truth that we have the ability to continue to get diesel buses, but they also have to be able to sell them here in California," he said.
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Fox News' Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
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