(The Center Square) – Delaying a mandate requiring hundreds of school districts to replace fossil fuel powered buses with e-vehicles has been requested of the state by New York Republicans.
State Assemblyman Phil Palmesano called the requirements the “mother of all unfunded state mandates.” State Sen. George Borrello said, “Like so much of the state’s climate agenda, there is no cost-benefit analysis of this mandate or any realistic plan for how to pay for it.”
The mandate, which went into effect in 2022, requires new school bus purchases to be zero emission by 2027 and all school buses in operation to be electric by 2035. Republicans want to push that deadline out to 2045, and examine the results of studies of the e-vehicles’ reliability.
Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, said school officials across the state “are becoming increasingly concerned about the tremendous financial and operational challenges associated with this one-size-fits-all requirement.”
“This mandated conversion will have a price tag in the billions, with New York state taxpayers simply expected to foot the bill,” he said.