Posted on 05/30/2023 1:04:21 PM PDT by lowbridge
One Michigan school official admitted his district’s move to using electric buses was less than the government has touted it to be.
Emile Lauzzana, the environmental sustainability director of Michigan’s fourth-largest school district, recently told the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education that the district’s electric bus fleet has had “a lot of downtime and performance issues.”
“It’s been a tough 2 1/2 years with this program,” Lauzzana said.
“We’ve been learning a lot about this technology,” Lauzzana also said. “Electric buses are approximately five times more expensive than regular buses, and the electrical infrastructure, which was originally estimated to be only about $50,000, give or take, for those four buses ended up being more like $200,000."
Lauzzana explained the district attempted to utilize "Vehicle to Grid" interconnection, which helps push energy back to the grid when buses are not being used, but that the “technology was not working.”
“I will say that I have a number of colleagues in different states who are facing similar challenges,” he added, noting the differences between electric cars versus buses. “For the school bus market, it’s been challenging for us.”
Ann Arbor Public Schools reportedly purchased its electric buses with a state grant that was funded by Michigan’s portion of a Volkswagen environmental settlement.
Last year, the Biden administration announced $17 million in grants to fund zero-emission electric school buses.
Despite the buses’ frustrating performance, Lauzzana affirmed Ann Arbor Public Schools would remain committed to the use of electric buses “as incentives became available.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Massive kickbacks are a given in any northeastern state mandate scheme.
Normally they at least produce some public good.
This is going to harm kids who are going to be stuck on buses by the side of the room on cold winter days.
It takes a special kind of sociopath to go there.
Btw you might enjoy this little bit of my family history.
I grew up in CT and one of my grandfathers founded and owned a construction company.
Many decades ago I was a teenager just old enough to drive and he was trying to recruit me into the firm. He gave me a summer job as his driver so we could spend a lot of time together while he went about his business—and he could give me a flavor of how the business worked.
As the summer was coming to an end he had me drive him to a rural part of the state where we had no activity at all.
We drove up to a hot dog stand and he told me to pull in so we get some lunch.
It is a rickety shack-like place and the guy running it hugged my grandfather when we arrived—apparently they knew each other very well.
Grandpa explains that if I do join the business he wants me to understand how it really works—and that this hot dog stand is very important.
I am looking at him like he has lost his marbles—and then he explains:
“Our largest customer is the state of Connecticut. They use sealed bids. If we had to fairly compete for those contracts our business could not prosper and might not even survive. As a result for many decades key politicians of the state from the governor on down have come here to this place to get suitcases of cash from me. If you decide to join us this will be a part of your job, delivering cash to the politicians.”
I was very skeptical—thought grandpa was having some fun and playing a joke on me—and I told him that I found this story hard to believe.
He said he could prove it was true.
I asked how he could possibly do that—and he told me to go talk to the guy running the hot dog stand and ask him what important people in the state come here to eat with me.
The hot dog guy confirmed everything my grandfather said—went through a list of dozens of prominent officials who ate with him at this obscure hot dog stand.
I was stunned—but had one final question for my grandfather.
“You said the bids were sealed. How could these politicians affect who won?”
My grandfather just laughed and said “You are not in the room. You have no idea what happens there.”
Footnote: Neither my grandfather nor any of the politicians named by the hot dog stand owner were ever indicted for any crime, nor did any media ever pick up the slightest hint of this story—and this went on for at least four decades.
As for me, I wanted nothing to do with the business after that day.
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