OPINION:
Vice President Kamala Harris has been a cheerleader for wasting billions in taxpayer money on electric buses. They are unreliable and cost a fortune. She cast the tiebreaking vote for the Orwellian-named Inflation Reduction Act. She owns this.
They cost three to four times as much as reliable diesel or low-emissions natural gas buses. If we bought diesel or natural gas-powered buses, we could purchase four times as many. That’s a lot of buses.
When a government bus has served its usual 12 years of service, it is sold, netting money back to the buyer. Diesel and natural gas buses often last decades after they are sold. Diesel engines can last up to 1.5 million miles if well maintained.
These buses are serviced in the private sector or in poorer countries. The resale value of used electric buses will likely be zero.
Most poor countries lack the electric grid capacity or infrastructure to charge electric buses. They also lack the $10,000 to $30,000 it often costs to install chargers or buy a new electric battery.
Electric buses have a terrible track record. Recently, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland approved $13.9 million to buy diesel buses. The district’s goal of adding 326 electric buses since 2021 hasn’t been going well. Local media point out that this has wasted millions on electric buses. So much for the electric bus transition.
Electric buses have been rejected in Maryland and sit idle in Asheville, North Carolina, where they have been called a money pit. That was before Hurricane Helene. They sit idle in Colorado Springs; Pomona and Stockton, California; Teton County and Jackson, Wyoming; Louisville, Kentucky; Edmonton and elsewhere.
A Fairfax County, Virginia, bus driver (who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of punishment for leaking the bad news) told me that the county has one new Thomas, one of the few U.S.-based manufacturers of electric buses, that hasn’t been on the road since its purchase in November. Another has been on the road only four times in the last year.
This driver told me that most bus drivers don’t want to drive electric buses because they take special training, must be driven back to charge after their morning run, break down frequently and have a limited range when the weather is cold.
If there is any problem — even if a service light goes on — the bus must be sent to the manufacturer for repair, which can take weeks or months. The warranty is voided if their mechanics work on them. Electric buses have far more problems than reliable diesel or natural gas buses.
Each one also requires costly charger installation. And they draw so much power that they can’t charge them all at once. They have to wait their turn to charge, adding costly waiting time.
About 80% of the world’s electric vehicles and EV batteries are made or processed in China. Every electric bus has to get almost all of its battery metals from China, a growing threat to our national security.
They are sourced from China because it is by far the low-cost manufacturer and processor of the metals needed for batteries.
Why? Because China gets 56% of all its energy, not just electricity, from low-cost, reliable coal. It has very low labor costs because it uses slave labor and offers little environmental protection. Chinese companies dump acids and other dangerous chemicals needed to process metals in the ground or rivers. Is that good for the world?
China owns the metal mines and processes all the graphite necessary for batteries. Ever heard of blood diamonds? We should call it blood cobalt, which is needed for batteries. Blood cobalt because in the cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, most of which are owned by China, children as young as 8 work and die.
We cannot compete on a cost basis with Chinese-made products because of its advantages and the cruelty practiced there.
With Ms. Harris, we can expect even more wasteful, senseless green spending. The U.S. spends more on climate initiatives than any other nation, yet a recent study points out that only 63 of 1,500 climate policies make any real impact on reducing carbon emissions. Electric buses are among the failures.
We must prioritize common sense, national security and reality over climate ideology. Ms. Harris cannot do that; her ideology blinds her. The Biden-Harris administration has been forcing the electric transportation “transition” on us with borrowed money and ever-increasing regulations.
Common sense must prevail so that we can spend our borrowed taxpayer money more wisely.
• Frank Lasee is president of Truth in Energy and Climate and a former Wisconsin state senator.
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