by Danielle Marie Holland

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Some Washington State students will feel the impact of a $14,898,500 funding investment in low or no-emission school buses in the coming academic year, based in part on the work established in the Biden–Harris Administration’s Investing in America initiative. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced these awards as part of its Clean School Bus Program’s grants competition, which aims to support sustainable transportation in schools. This initiative aligns with the presidential administration’s expressed commitment to investing in the future of education and the environment.

Michael Regan, director of the EPA, announced the $1 billion in awards. “I have to tell you, as a father of a 10-year-old, I am thinking about the clean air that our children will breathe, the reduction of incidences of youth respiratory distress, and their ability to fully embrace education without being distracted from illnesses,” said Regan, referring to the program’s replacement of carbon-emitting diesel buses with electric or low-carbon vehicles. 

Washington State recipients include Walla Walla Public Schools, receiving $3,750,000 to purchase 15 buses, and the RWC Group, receiving $11,148,500 to purchase 33 buses. The funding allows third parties, such as the RWC Group, which sells and leases buses, to apply for the funding if they serve at least four school district beneficiaries. 

Seattle Public Schools students are currently served by two bus contractors, the 30-plus-year transportation provider First Student, and the California-based newcomer Zum. Zum is housed in South Seattle’s Rainier Beach community, where a bus driver and mechanic strike was averted just last year. Zum employees overwhelmingly ratified their first contract as members of Teamsters Local 174, gaining parity with the First Service contract. Seattle school district yellow bus service is now provided entirely by Teamsters across Zum and First Students. 

“As the leader in the industry,” a Zum spokesperson told the Emerald, “we are committed to transition our fleet nationwide to electric to ensure that all students have access to safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation. We will continue to work with Seattle Public Schools to put a plan in place to transition to electric, and will apply for the EPA grant for Washington districts in the upcoming application cycle.”

During the last EPA grant application cycle, Zum received $26 million from the Clean School Bus Program for fleet electrification for school districts in this region.

Of the roughly 10,000 school buses shuttling students to class across the state, about 40 are electric, with only a couple of those running in Seattle. Both bus providers have been marketing their commitments to the transitions, with Zum committing to a 100% electric fleet nationally by 2027, and First Student transitioning 30,000 diesel buses to electric nationally by 2035. Zum told the Emerald that they were not eligible for the most recent Clean School Bus Program grant cycle, while First Student did not respond.

The U.S. transportation sector has the highest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors nationwide, half of which comes from light-duty vehicles. The Clean School Bus Program was created through public–private partnerships with U.S. manufacturing companies. Regan said the program was just “a shot in the arm,” and was designed to support a new wave of union jobs in electrical vehicle production domestically.

“About 86% of the applicants represent rural communities, like disadvantaged communities and tribal communities,” said Regan. When asked how Indigenous communities fit into the cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, Regan said the president is thinking through the lens of leaving no one behind. “In terms of environmental justice, it’s about ensuring that no community is impacted disproportionately by any of the activities or any of the programs or opportunities that we pursue.” 

Regan cites the Clean School Bus Program as a perfect example of a public-private partnership: “Federal resources are being matched with private dollars to meet the demands of the market.” 

Lakota historian and organizer Nick Estes challenges the centering of an environmental program designed by demands of the market. “Indigenous people have been at the forefront of pipeline struggles,” Estes said of the impetus to transition to a green economy. “So, in many ways, it’s what Indigenous communities have been advocating for, but we are also not trying to perpetuate the same colonial relation.” 

Just how the Clean School Bus Program will contribute to advancing environmental justice through emissions reduction becomes far more complicated when assessing the impact of domestic mining for electric vehicles. Lithium, copper, and many of the needed minerals are in or near tribal lands of sacred and cultural importance. Disputes rage on as tribes are suing to stop the creation of new sites, such as a proposed lithium mine in Thacker Pass, located on the border of Nevada and Oregon. 

Estes refers to the decades-long fight occurring at Oak Flat, Arizona, the site of sacred Apache land, where the Apache hold sunrise ceremonies and lived before being forcibly removed by the U.S. government during the Eisenhower administration. Native American groups have been working to keep the international mining giant Rio Tinto from blowing a 2-mile-wide crater 1,000 feet deep at the site to extract copper for electric vehicles.

The extraction of copper is essential to transforming vehicles to electric, because recycled copper cannot be used to make certain electronic components. The amount of copper and lithium needed to meet the Biden administration’s goal to transition the entire federal vehicle fleet to electric would be unparalleled. Estes notes that Rio Tinto has a horrendous environmental and social record, having destroyed a 46,000-year-old Indigenous sacred site in Australia. “We are actually trying to move into the future in a different way of relating to the land and each other,” said Estes.

The administration states it is aiming for a “holistic” approach to avoid environmental degradation. “We are tightening down on environmental regulations and policies to ensure that we protect those communities,” said Regan; “that we protect the environment while pursuing advanced technologies that will reduce harms and hazards that our communities are facing and that are impacting the planet.” It is unclear how, if at all, the administration is doing that. What is clear is that the fight against domestic mining and its impact on the land, water, and Indigenous communities is only ramping up. As Zum and First Student pursue fleet transitions and as Sen. Patty Murray (a Democrat from Washington) advocates for more clean school bus funding, the conversation has to take into account the domestic mining impact. Our only sustainable future is one that honors Indigenous rights and moves us beyond either-or binaries. The time to decolonize energy production is now.

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Editors’ Note: This article was updated on 02/05/2024 to correct information about Zum’s eligibility during the most recent Clean School Bus Program grant cycle.

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Danielle Marie Holland is an essayist, transformative writer, and podcaster. Danielle is a regular contributing writer at Parents Magazine, and her work has been published in DAME, Insider, Rewire News Group, and beyond. Her book A String of Apologies is forthcoming via Hinton Publishing.

📸 Featured Image: An electric school bus as part of a pilot program in West Virginia in 2022. (Photo via Chiarascura/Shutterstock.com.)

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