This week, Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation that would invest $25 billion to convert the entire US fleet of ICE school buses to electric vehicles. The bill would authorize federal grant money over the course of 10 years, and 40% of the funds would be specifically devoted to replacing school buses operating in mostly nonwhite, poorer communities.
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The Biden administration has published its $2 trillion infrastructure plan, which is called The American Jobs Plan, on the White House website. He’ll discuss the plan today in a speech in Pittsburgh.
It’s extremely comprehensive – and that’s an understatement – so we pulled out the clean energy overview in a quick roundup here.
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In an unconfirmed letter to the Commander in Chief, two US Senators from California urged the administration to follow their state’s lead in establishing a phase out date for gas-powered vehicles. Furthermore, President Biden and his team are maneuvering how to reimplement vehicle emissions rules eased by the previous administration.
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The Postmaster General for the United States Postal Service (USPS) recently committed to 10% of its new fleet going full-electric. The upgrade was announced this past week and will replace 50,000-165,000 vehicles over the next 10 years. The USPS’ current ICE lineup of LLV’s (long-life vehicles) is near 30 years old.
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Maryland’s Montgomery County plans to switch the entire public school bus fleet to fully electric from diesel engines. The transition is one of the largest in the US to date, and is expected to take 12 years. The green plan will completely replace all 1,400 current ICE buses. What’s most interesting about the deal is that it comes with virtually no additional cost to Montgomery County’s public school districts.
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As the world enters 2021 with a cautious optimism, its global markets are still feeling many of the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic that have yet to be eradicated. Many people have pivoted toward remote work. This has increased smartphone and laptop demand, leading to shortages of essential components like semiconductors. One industry that is beginning to experience the impact of these shortages is automakers. If semiconductor manufacturers can’t catch up, it could spell more delays for several major automotive companies.
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All automakers have dropped support for a lawsuit that threatened California’s long-held legal ability to set its own emissions rules, as reported by Reuters.
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President Joe Biden has just announced that he will replace the entire US federal fleet with electric vehicles made in the US.
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