At a recent transportation budget hearing in Albany, Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City, had a warning about electric buses.
“Here’s a cautionary note, which is that the electric buses, about 60 altogether that we’ve received so far, have been underperforming in terms of their breakdown frequency,” he told legislators, adding that the MTA has stopped buying buses because of persistent problems.
But here in Upstate New York, a state mandate, passed in the 2022-23 state budget that I did not support, requires all new school buses purchased in New York be zero-emission by 2027 and all school buses in operation be electric by 2035.
This mandate – much like many others put in place by the Democratic majorities in the legislature and governor – is unreasonable, unrealistic and unaffordable…