By Elizabeth McGowan for Energy News Network.
Broadcast version by Edwin J. Viera for Virginia News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

A lack of state money isn’t curbing Virginia school districts’ enthusiasm for ridding their fleets of polluting, noisy diesel-powered buses. 

Through December, Virginia ranked fourth nationwide in the number of electric school buses either on the road or on order. Its 260 total was surpassed by only California, Maryland, and New York, according to data compiled by the nonprofit World Resources Institute.

All three of those states have either robust incentives, mandates, or both for districts to make the switch to electric school buses. In Virginia, though, state funding has not been available since a one-time, $24 million allocation five years ago from the state’s Volkswagen emissions cheating settlement. Meanwhile, state lawmakers blocked Dominion Energy from expanding an electric school bus pilot program that it had also started in 2019.

Instead, school districts have bumped up their e-bus counts by plugging into federal dollars, forming public-private ventures and buying buses directly.

“There are so many ways to make this transition work and that’s great,” said Bobby Monacella, a Mothers Out Front campaigner in Fairfax County who helped to usher in the e-bus evolution in her Northern Virginia backyard in 2019. “I’m so happy it’s happening to what amounts to the largest mass transit program in the country.”

And the momentum is continuing.

• Virginia’s electric school bus total will soon exceed 300 following Monday’s announcement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarding Fairfax County Public Schools $16.5 million to purchase 42 buses. Lynchburg City Schools received similar funding in 2022 under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and is bringing 25 electric buses on board. Lynchburg and Fairfax County are two of 14 Virginia school districts that have thus far successfully tapped into that money. 



• In the Washington, D.C. suburb of Manassas City, school transportation officials are the first in Virginia to begin leasing buses from Highland Electric Fleets, a Massachusetts-based company with an innovative model to help school districts more smoothly transition to electric transportation.



• And in Fairfax County, local pressure applied by Monacella and Mothers Out Front to reduce its carbon footprint is prompting the local district to buy an additional three electric buses on its own dime — the first school district in Virginia to do so. By spring, its 1,625-bus fleet will include 31 electric models. Eventually, that count will jump to 73 when the district spends its newly awarded $16.5 million.

Tish Tablan leads the Electrify Our Schools program at Charlottesville-based Generation 180. The nonprofit has been instrumental in guiding a movement among Virginia schools toward adopting rooftop solar as a cleaner, more affordable power source. More recently, Tablan folded electric buses into that mission.


Navigating the latter is challenging, she said. But by buckling down on her homework, she has become a go-to resource for schools clamoring for guidance on accessing electric buses.


“I wish there was an easy button that schools could press to navigate this complicated process,” Tablan said. “We’re trying to help them because there’s a lot to figure out.”


Cost is part of that formula. Electric school buses are roughly three times as expensive as traditional diesel ones.


The price tag on a 77-passenger electric bus in Virginia is $368,500, compared to $120,099 for a diesel model, according to Whitney Kopanko, the electric vehicle program manager at Sonny Merryman, the Prince William-based bus dealer that controls 60% of the overall school bus market in Virginia. 


Two other major barriers to the transition are lack of familiarity with electric bus technology and insufficient staffing.


“Strapped school districts in Virginia just don’t have the bandwidth to do all of this,” Tablan said. “Applying for grants is difficult enough. Districts are shorthanded already. Too few bus drivers means they have to pull people off their regular jobs.” 


Staying ahead of curve in Lynchburg 


Lynchburg City Schools will replace close to half of its 62-strong diesel bus fleet in one fell swoop this winter when 25 shiny new electric buses begin plying the roads.


Hope Watts, the district’s director of transportation, doesn’t want to stop there. She’s hoping Lynchburg can receive money for 37 more before the EPA’s five-year, $5 billion grant program runs out of money in 2026.


“It’s possible that the state or the federal government could have a mandate for electric buses,” said Watts, where roughly 6,000 of the 8,000 students ride buses. “I want to be ahead of the curve.”


Lynchburg was awarded $9.8 million for 25 buses and chargers — $375,000 per vehicle and $20,000 per charger — from the EPA in its first round of grant funding. Watts found out earlier this week that her district didn’t qualify for a second-round request for four additional buses.


Generally, the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program prioritizes school districts with the highest shares of low-income and underserved households. Historically, they disproportionately bear the health burdens of tailpipe pollution, including ozone and minute pieces of particulate matter that can become lodged in residents’ lungs.


She admitted to experiencing a case of sticker shock when Lynchburg had to pay upward of $1 million for bus upgrades and the installation of the accompanying charging infrastructure.


That’s why Watts is relieved that Tablan and her colleagues introduced her to a Generation 180-initiated online exchange for school officials immersed in electrification.


Through SLICE — School Leadership in Clean Energy — Watts learned that Lynchburg is eligible to apply for federal IRA tax credits to take the financial sting out of the $775,000 cost for outfitting buses with premium tires, a second stop sign, GPS, cameras, air conditioning, wheelchair lifts and other necessities.


The same goes for the $297,000 Lynchburg spent on charging-affiliated conduit and trench-digging. The local investor-owned utility, Appalachian Power, installed necessary overhead lines at no cost, she said.


“I wouldn’t have a clue that this possibility existed without the SLICE network,” Watts said. “It’s fantastic to be able to compare notes because we’re all in this together.”


To ease her drivers into the idea of electrification and allow for training, Watts arranged for early delivery of one demonstration bus from Sonny Merryman last September. It officially joined the diesel fleet in December.


“Once they drive it that first time they love it and are always begging for it,” Watts said about the sleek bus. “And why wouldn’t they? This bus is comfortable, quiet as a mouse, and the heat and air conditioning work like a dream.”


Her company’s mantra, coined by executive chairman Floyd Merryman, is “electrification is the most exciting thing to happen to the school bus since yellow paint.”


Manassas City lauds public-private partnership


In Manassas City, Andy Hawkins was seeking a solution to the greenhouse gases his district’s 65 buses emit while transporting 7,700 students throughout a community measuring 10 square miles in the heart of Prince William County.


At first, he was skeptical when a colleague alerted him to a deal that schools in nearby Montgomery County, Md., signed with Highland in 2021. 


But the executive director of finance and operations became an enthusiast by the time he opted to sign a 15-year contract with Highland in 2022. Hawkins’ district pays only an annual lease fee of $30,000 per bus. In turn, the private company invests in the upfront costs of buying the buses and charging infrastructure, electrifying the bus depot and training drivers and mechanics. It also offers a charge-readiness guarantee.


Manassas City’s first three buses arrived in August 2023. Another three will be delivered this year and six more in 2025. After those first dozen, Hawkins anticipates a full fleet turnover within 15 years.


“It doesn’t really cost me anything,” he said, pointing out that maintaining and fueling a diesel bus costs at least $25,000 annually. “I’m the finance guy, so this deal had to make sense financially. And it did. Highland has done what it promised to do.”


Highland, active in 30 states, combines private capital with public funding. Its model mimics the power purchase agreements (PPAs) that have helped schools draw on solar energy without the burden of steep upfront costs of solar arrays.


As the largest buyer of electric school buses nationwide, Highland can eliminate overhead costs for districts and recoup that investment over time via decreasing bus prices, cheaper fuel and maintenance savings, said Matt Stanberry, Highland’s vice president of market development.


“Stack up those benefits and we can get better economics that we can pass along,” he said. “We’re trying to provide districts with at least price parity for operating their fleets, or better yet, savings.”


Highland is eligible to apply for tax credits available through the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as well an array of grants from utilities and federal, state and local sources, Stanberry said. 


Pollution-wise, Hawkins is elated that switching out those first three buses is the equivalent of removing 300 cars from the road for a year.


“It’s a healthier environment for students,” he said, adding that once-skeptical bus drivers “now complain that we don’t have enough electric buses.”


Fairfax’s outright purchase is unique 


A 2019 local mandate requiring all school buses be electric by 2035 spurred transportation leaders in sprawling Fairfax County to buy three electric buses that are scheduled to be integrated into routes this spring.


“We are fully committed to converting the fleet, but it has to be a staggered approach,” said Paul D’Andrade, the district’s assistant director of transportation services. “We’re fortunate enough to have the budget and my understanding is we’re the first district to buy electric buses outright.”

In addition to its 42 just-funded buses, the county had already acquired 28 electric buses from separate programs administered by the state Department of Environmental Quality and Dominion Energy. Each program provided money to cover the difference in price between an electric and diesel bus.


In 2019, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam allotted more than $24 million of Virginia’s $93.6 million share of the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust toward clean school buses. A subsequent DEQ-operated program helped schools statewide buy 96 buses.


Also in 2019, Dominion Energy started a pilot vehicle-to-grid program with schools in its service territory that traded 50 diesel models for electric ones. Fairfax received Dominion funding for eight buses.


That program played out when legislators — in 2020 and 2021 — rejected Dominion’s attempts to advance beyond phase one and add at least 1,000 more buses. Program costs were to be recoverable through the utility’s base rates. Opponents criticized most of Dominion’s measures to expand as monopoly overreach that would have raised customers’ bills and handcuffed public schools to the utility’s profit incentives.


“We’re looking at all avenues for funding,” D’Andrade said about Fairfax’s incremental approach. “We figure in five or six years, when we ramp up, prices will start to drop and the technology will be better.”


Advocates still pursue state e-bus funding


Climate change and students’ health and safety were driving forces for Monacella and other members of the joint environmental task force spurring Fairfax County to set a bus replacement deadline.


During that campaign, Monacella’s older daughter was in high school and her younger one was in junior high.


“Winning that was huge,” she said. “It was great to see everyone rally around it.”


Now, close to five years later, she’s eager to score another victory at the General Assembly level. That entails finding a source of money to help Virginia schools statewide offset the cost of electric buses.


In 2021, Mothers Out Front was instrumental in jumpstarting a bipartisan, ambitious and first-of-its-kind piece of legislation, House Bill 2118, that created a specific grant funding model for bus electrification over a 10-year span. However, a financing mechanism never materialized.


The bill that became law was sponsored by then-Del. Mark Keam, a Fairfax County Democrat who resigned in 2022. His original legislation was stripped of its original funding source, a tax on dyed diesel fuel, used in farm machinery and other non-highway vehicles. The substitute version directed the DEQ to hash out details for the grant fund via a workgroup.


While Monacella has had conversations with Keam’s successor, Del. Holly Seibold, also a Fairfax County Democrat, about seeking a sustainable source of dollars, she said “nothing is imminent” yet.


Virginia’s 302 electric school buses don’t even amount to 2% of the 16,000 school buses in service statewide. So Monacella has no intent of giving up. 

“Electric buses are absolutely worth putting money into,” she said. “They’re such a big bang for your buck on reducing emissions and taking care of kids’ health.”




Elizabeth McGowan wrote this article for Energy News Network.


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CO2 pipelines are on the increase in the United States, and like all pipelines, they come with risks. Preparing for those risks is a major focus of the Community Benefits Agreement between Nebraska-based Bold Alliance and Tallgrass Energy Solutions.

Tallgrass plans to modify an existing gas pipeline that crosses Nebraska to transport CO2.

Bold Alliance Director Jane Kleeb said her organization stands with communities facing energy infrastructure projects, to help ensure they have what they need and that the company is giving back. She pointed to Satartia, Mississippi's 2020 experience with a massive CO2 pipeline leak as evidence of the importance of first-responder training.

"We have real money in here," she said, "$400,000 initially, and then an additional $200,000 for training and $100,000 for an emergency response system that first responders will get, to equip their mostly-volunteer firefighters."

Not only did the Mississippi first responders lack the training for a CO2 disaster, Kleeb said, but some were unaware the pipeline even existed.

Tallgrass has said it will conduct yearly training for first responders in the 10-county area, and send yearly notices to all landowners along the route. Kleeb said she expects the firefighter training to begin within the next few months.

CO2 is colorless, odorless and displaces oxygen, making it potentially deadly. It can disable internal-combustion engines on vehicles needed for evacuation. Although CO2 pipelines cover more than 5,000 miles in the United States and continue to be built, Kleeb said federal regulations aren't yet in place.

"For folks listening, you may be, like, 'What do you mean they don't have regulations in place?' And that's what we've been saying for the last few years: We need regulations in place," she said. "No pipeline will go into operation in our state until those regulations are finished, and Tallgrass then knows the type of safety valves and other things they have to put in place to be in compliance."

This month, a pipeline rupture in Sulphur, Louisiana, leaked more than 2,600 barrels of CO2 and took two hours to control.

Another provision in the Community Benefits Agreement is annual royalty payments, which Kleeb calls a "significant win" for Nebraska landowners.

"Landowners are now going to be getting 10 cents per metric ton that is sequestered of the carbon," she said. "So, that could be up to $1 million every year that will go back to landowners in the path of this pipeline."

Kleeb said no pipeline companies in the Midwest currently pay landowners a royalty for use of their land.


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April has been "Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month," but the pests don't know that. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's the best time of year for Pennsylvanians to spot invasive species before they can do more damage.

Invasive pests cost the United States about $40 billion a year in damages to trees, plants and crops.

Kathryn Bronsky, national policy manager for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said hungry pests include not only invasive insects but diseases they carry, which people can unknowingly spread.

"Some examples of what to be on the lookout for are Asian longhorn beetle and spongy moths, and other pests that harm trees and natural resources," she said. "And fruit flies, citrus greening, spotted lanternfly and lots of others that can damage crops and agriculture here in the U.S."

Bronsky said spotted lanternfly eggs have not hatched yet, so she urges people to be on the lookout for their egg masses, which resemble small mud smears. She recommends scraping them into plastic bags with sanitizer, or squashing them directly. Either approach will help diminish the invasive spotted lanternfly population.

Invasive pests attack different types of trees, Bronsky said. The tree of heaven is their preferred host, but a wide range of fruit, ornamental and woody trees also are at risk. Bronsky added that climate change and certain weather conditions can magnify the impact of invasive pests.

"We know climate change can increase the level of plant pest infestation and disease infection," she said. "It also allows these pests to produce more generations each year, and extends the suitable habitat for these plant pests so they can spread to new areas that we didn't know they could previously exist."

She added that it's important to note that such items as firewood can carry pests, from spotted lanternflies to spongy moths, that can then be spread through the movement of firewood. She suggests people avoid this by purchasing only heat-treated certified firewood.

People can report sightings to the USDA online at hungrypests.com.

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A new study raised red flags about respiratory health in Pennsylvania, particularly for those living near oil and gas activity.

The study by GeoHealth said nationwide, oil and gas venting and flaring exacerbate asthma in 73,000 children, including nearly 12,000 in Pennsylvania.

Jackson Zeiler, public health analyst for the Environmental Health Project, said energy developers do flaring and venting on a regular basis to remove excess gas. He explained the study looked at the potential health risks associated with the practice.

"There's adverse birth outcomes, there's cancer outcomes," Zeiler pointed out. "Volatile Organic Compounds are a big part of these emissions, which have a whole host of health effects, including respiratory health issues, different neurological effects like headaches and dizziness for people who are working in those facilities, and people who live really close by."

Zeiler noted flaring also contributes to an increased risk of hospitalizations, emergency room visits, worsening asthma and even premature death. But the energy industry said flaring is needed to minimize pressure at well sites, for testing and other reasons.

The study used satellite images and gas-imaging techniques to visualize emissions. Zeiler added companies are required to report their emissions to regulatory authorities and the data is compiled into a National Emissions Inventory through various sensors.

"They looked at the National Emissions Inventory numbers and compared it to the actual imaging that they looked at," Zeiler emphasized. "They found that the imaging saw way more emissions than was accounted for in the National Emissions Inventory. They're able to conclude that companies are underreporting, essentially, what they're flaring and what they're emitting."

He suggested Pennsylvanians could work with lawmakers on stricter reporting guidelines and transparency requirements for oil and gas operators. He also recommended advocating for greater setback distances between well sites and residential areas to minimize exposure.


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