Cobleskill-Richmondville considered the daunting prospect of switching to electric school buses Tuesday night.
School board members heard Superintendent Matt Sickles explain that schools could buy only emission-free buses––electric––in 2027 and must switch to all emission-free by 2035.
The mandate comes from Albany as the state moves towards green energy.
A major concern is cost. A new 66-passenger diesel bus costs $172,000, Mr. Sickles said. A 66-passenger electric bus costs $400,000, plus $65,000 for a battery upgrade for a larger vehicle.
A charging station might cost as much as $100,000, Mr. Sickles said.
New technology in the coming years might drive down costs, but that’s no guarantee, he added.
“It’s a huge assumption that technology may evolve,” Mr. Sickles said.
And the opposite may happen. The demand of 700 New York school districts trying to buy electric buses might drive the cost higher, Mr. Sickles said.
It’s also unclear whether one charge would be enough for a bus on C-R’s longer routes, especially those elevated ones––like Summit––that would sap a bus’s electric power.
Another factor is National Grid. If every Schoharie County school district switched to electric buses now, National Grid couldn’t support the switch, Mr. Sickles said.
“To me, this is the mother of all unfunded mandates,” school board President Bruce Tryon said.
C-R’s situation is complicated by needing a new bus garage, a project that’s been considered for years. The district needs to find property and get voter approval to buy it and build the garage.
“We already need a new garage,” Mr. Sickles said. “That critical need now starts to take on a different shape.”
He held out hope that Albany will make amendments to the mandate. For instance, the mandate’s the same for a Long Island district of 10 square miles and C-R, which is 180 square miles.
“Or 360 square miles in the Adirondacks,” Mr. Sickles said.
The state has set aside $500 million for the changover, though Mr. Sickles said that would cover only 10 percent of the cost statewide.
And although 2027 is a little more than three years away, there’s little time to act.
“That’s just around the corner,” said Mr. Tryon.
Mr. Sickles agreed, adding “Every decision we make now affects 2027 and 2035.”
C-R has a few points in its favor. The district recently established a capital bus purchase reserve and a capital construction reserve, both designed to hold at least some funds for buses and–-potentially––a new bus garage.
Mr. Sickles advised advocacy or lobbying to convince Albany not to abandon electric buses but to amend the rules.
“This isn’t going away,” he said.