(Daily360.com) – Joe Biden and his never-ending blank check for all things “green” no matter practicality may have a new failure to add to his list. Biden allocated $1 billion in taxpayer money efforting to “transform America’s school bus fleet” from gas to electric. In mid-April Emile Lauzzana, environmental sustainability director for the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education detailed serious problems with these buses. The district which is the fourth largest in Michigan is being underserved by buses which require long periods of down time, deliver poor performance and are not yet even fully deployed. The buses which cost approximately five times more money than their gas-powered counterparts also require serious infrastructure upgrades within the district. Lauzzana said the initial upgrade estimates were around $50,000 but have since ballooned to over $200,000. He called the transition “challenging” for his industry.
Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was given power over the $1 billion and how it would be used to reach the administration’s goal of total zero emission vehicles. The EPA has purchased over 2,400 buses for use throughout the nation. Proterra an electric bus company lauded by the Biden administration as “amazing” has already had to remove 25 of their buses from Philadelphia due to structural issues. California has seen similar issues with roughly 1/3 of its electric buses out of service awaiting repair. Despite all these issues and more mounting the Biden administration set aside another $9 billion in their 2021 budget for electric buses. Michigan’s Democrat governor Gretchen Whitmer is also pressing-on despite the issues, planning a $150 million taxpayer funded investment for an electric bus program. Whitmer is ignoring critics who point out the state does not have the infrastructure to accommodate her plan and it will raise the costs to residents across the state. Congressional Republicans are also demanding answers from Biden administration officials such as Jennifer Granholm who own large amounts of sock in the Proterra battery company and are likely profiting from these measures.
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