Senate Democrats announce $73B clean bus plan

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced a new $73 billion plan on Tuesday aimed at replacing the country’s mass transit buses with clean vehicles. 

The proposal seeks to replace the country’s 70,000 buses and 85,000 cutaway vehicles and transit vans, prioritizing funding for areas with the worst air quality first, according to a press release.

A summary said the plan, called Clean Transit for America, will authorize the money for the procurement and deployment of zero-emission buses and infrastructure, including charging stations related to it. 

Nearly all of the funds would be used for grants to help with procurement and infrastructure costs, according to Schumer’s office. 

The funds going elsewhere include $60 million toward a workforce training program and $500 million that would go to transit agencies to lessen the burden of retraining workers.

“To reduce the carbon in our atmosphere and address the climate crisis, we must transform our transit system,” Schumer said in a statement.

“The Clean Transit for America proposal will replace dirty, diesel-spewing buses, create new American jobs, help save the planet and protect public health, particularly in our country’s most vulnerable communities,” he added. 

President Biden has similarly expressed a desire to lessen emissions from buses, pitching electrification of at least 20 percent of the country’s school bus fleet in his $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan. 

The transportation sector is the country’s largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions and was responsible for 29 percent of emissions in 2019. 

—Updated at 6:56 p.m.