NYC secures federal grant to roll out 51 all-electric school buses, Mayor Adams pushes for more

New York City’s yellow school buses are going green — or at least some of them.

Dozens of all-electric school buses are about to hit city streets thanks to funding from President Biden’s infrastructure package, Mayor Adams and federal officials announced Tuesday.

The $18 million grant, allocated via the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by Biden last November, bankrolls the purchase of 51 electric school buses that will service “underserved and overburdened communities” across the five boroughs, Walter Mugdan, deputy regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, told reporters in a press conference at City Hall.

Adams lauded the influx of new green energy buses, but was quick to note he’s angling for more.

“I’m hoping we get another bite of that apple because this is not enough money. We want more,” Adams told reporters. “This is the Big Apple, so we should get big dollars.”

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Adams might just be in luck, said Mugdan.

“We expect to make another $1 billion available for clean school buses sometime in 2023,” he said. “Just be on the lookout for the next round.”

The 51 new electric vehicles are but a fraction of the 9,500 school buses that make up the city’s fleet, according to the Department of Education.

A City Hall spokeswoman said that the Adams administration originally applied to get funding from the infrastructure legislation to buy about 150 electric school buses.

It was not immediately clear which neighborhoods in the city will benefit from the new electric buses.

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A measure baked into the state government budget adopted in Albany this year requires that all school buses in New York be electric by 2035.

Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, said a lot more funding will need to be allocated in order for the state to accomplish that goal.

“We know that cost remains the biggest barrier to adoption of these zero emission vehicles because the buses can cost three to four times more than their diesel counterparts,” she said. “So we need funding sources.”