Energy Experts: Electric School Buses Are Driving Change
As part of the Electric Perspectives podcast, Exelon’s Chris Budzynski joined CALSTART and World Resources Institute representatives to discuss their new white paper on electric school buses and the benefits they can bring to communities.
The podcast, hosted by the Edison Electric Institute’s Kellen Schefter, details why electric school buses can play a key role in the clean energy transformation and how they can help make it a more equitable one.
“To some degree, this is still relatively new and we’re all learning. So, the more we go through this and the more that we share those learnings and best practices – and importantly for us as a utility, the more that we are at the table early in the process the more we can offer help both from a traditional and non-traditional perspective,” said Budzynski, director of Clean Energy Initiatives, Exelon.
Budzynski also emphasized the broad and central roles that utilities can play in accelerating electric school bus adoption across communities throughout the U.S.
“We have a direct connection with our customers and our communities. We work very closely with them on a regular basis. This is just another opportunity for us to partner with them to help effectuate the clean energy transition.”
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created once-in-a-generation funding opportunities to electrify school buses across the nation and deliver a unique set of benefits to customers, communities and other key stakeholders.
Speaking on the policy needs and how electric school buses fit into the transition, Budzynski stated, “With any policy that is developed, the most important thing is for us to prioritize, identify and support under resourced communities as we go through the transition.”
You can read the white paper by Exelon and CALSTART along with contributions from EPRI, Clean Energy Works, World Resources Institute (WRI) and Edison Electric Institute (EEI) featured at the link here.