Free Republic

The Biden administration has begun a crackdown on emissions generated by heavy duty diesel trucks and buses with regulations announced Friday aimed at forcing those vehicles to hit zero pollution targets by the end of the decade. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims the new rules represent the “strongest-ever greenhouse gas emissions” standards of their kind with everything from city buses and box trucks to garbage trucks and 18-wheelers targeted.

To RTD, the crimes that are happening are a microcosm of a larger, societal challenge that is seeping its way into its buses, trains and stations.. The Lakewood Police Department described a disturbing scene that unfolded on Feb. 13 at a Regional Transportation District light rail station. Two teenage girls allegedly assaulted a man at the Wadsworth Boulevard light rail station, the police said. The teens seemingly attacked the man at random, holding him down, kicking him and calling him racial slurs, the police added. The incident was one of several crimes that occurred in metro Denver's public transportation system...

Schools in one South Carolina district are getting a technological and environmental boost with the delivery of a new fleet of electric school buses. The Orangeburg County School District on Monday was part of a celebration about the delivery of 20 new electric school buses. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan was on had at Marshall Elementary School, in Orangeburg, along with South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn and district officials to announce the funding for the new clean school buses delivered to the state. Officials said South Carolina received $65.9 million for 168 new school buses from President...

Porterville Unified school buses are getting quieter. That's because they're slowly shifting away from diesel and moving to electric. Assistant superintendent Brad Rohrbach says that transition is now accelerating thanks to a $13.8 million award from the Environmental Protection Agency's 'Clean School Bus Program'. "It's really the next step in our endeavor to sustain and move forward on our sustainability and energy efforts at the district," Rohrbach said. Director of Transportation and Sustainability Richard Tree says the 35 electric buses they will purchase with the money will help reduce the district's carbon footprint and create a model for others in...

Cities coast-to-coast grappling with broken-down e-buses that cannot be fixed .. Between the federal government, states and municipalities, untold billions in taxpayer dollars have been spent adding electric buses to transit fleets across the U.S. in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. However, cities from coast-to-coast are grappling with broken-down e-buses that cannot be fixed, are too expensive to fix, or they have scrapped their electric fleets altogether. Officials in Asheville, North Carolina, recently expressed frustration that three of the five e-buses the city purchased for millions in 2018 are now sitting idle due to a combination of software issues,...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The city of Asheville's purchase of five electric buses in 2018 has turned into a multi-million-dollar loss. The buses have been broken or unable to run because of software and/or mechanical issues, making them an expensive and disappointing purchase, according to city maintenance and transportation staff. ... Currently, three of the five buses are idled, with one that has had a broken double door since July. “We haven’t been able to get new doors,” Asheville's interim transportation director Jessica Morriss said. “There's no third party that makes a door. We'd have to get custom-made doors.” Each of...

An electric double-decker bus caught fire in southwest London on Thursday, prompting the city’s transportation agency to remove a fleet from service as a precaution while the incident is investigated, according to reports. Passengers on the bus in Wimbledon during rush hour had to be evacuated, but no injuries were reported, according to BBC News. Video of the incident show flames and smoke engulfing an apparent rear section of the bus. "Safety is our top priority and we are working with the operator, London General, and the bus manufacturer, Switch, to investigate what happened," Transport for London’s head of business...

Officials today launched an investigation after one of Sadiq Khan's electric buses exploded during today's rush hour. Terrified residents in Wimbledon described a massive 'bang' after a double decker burst into flames during this morning's commute, sparking chaos on the roads as black smoke filled the streets. Astonishing video obtained by MailOnline shows the dramatic moment firefighters battled to put out the inferno. Transport for London (TfL) today launched an investigation after the blaze destroyed the rear and blew out the back windows ... 'It took a long time for them to get it under control with flames flying out...

Electric buses are just like electric passenger vehicles: they’re not ready for prime time, only more so. Proterra buses are a case in point. Cities that wasted money on them found they had far less range then advertised. They commonly couldn’t complete even short, flat routes specifically designed for them. The enormous weight of their batteries cracked frames, and getting parts from the factory was virtually impossible. But to make up for their failures, they were far more expensive than reliable diesel buses. Proterra went bankrupt in August of 2023.President Biden gave Proterra at least $10 million, and lauded it...

Chicago suburbs pass their own ordinances Lawmakers in Chicago suburbs in recent days have approved new laws similar to the busing ordinance in the nation’s third-most-populous city that aims to streamline migrant drop-offs and stop buses from leaving new arrivals “in the middle of traffic, on random street corners and at O’Hare International Airport,” Chicago officials have said. Texas has sent over 28,000 asylum-seekers to Chicago since August 2022, according to Friday numbers from Abbott’s office. “This was a tough one, because we don’t want to look like we don’t care, but we have to move forward and get a...

Busloads of asylum seekers headed for the Big Apple are thwarting Mayor Eric Adams’ crackdown on arrivals by being dropped off in New Jersey and jumping on a train to reach their “final destination” — turning a family-friendly Garden State suburb into a migrant hub. The Secaucus Police Department and town officials were informed Saturday by the Hudson County Executives’ Office that four buses transporting migrants bound for New York had arrived at the Secaucus Junction train station, according to officials. “From what we understand, after being dropped at the train station the migrants then took trains to New York...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has defied NYC Mayor Eric Adams demands on when migrants can arrive in the city - with the latest busload set to be dropped off just as the Times Square ball drops on New Years Eve. Last week Adams issued an executive order that buses could only arrive at Port Authority to drop off migrants between 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. from Monday to Friday unless given permission to do otherwise. Despite this a bus headed to the Big Apple filled with around 50 asylum seekers left El Paso, Texas around 11a.m. on Saturday morning.

ELBURN, Ill. (WLS) -- Grundy County has joined other Chicago suburbs in an effort to deter buses from dropping off migrants from Texas outside of the city. As the rhetoric surrounding this issue grows more heated, a growing number of suburbs are convening emergency meetings and taking action to keep those migrant buses away. This comes after more than 30 buses have dropped off hundreds of migrants all over the map at all hours of the day with no warning. Alderman Brian Hopkins appeared on CNN and was critical of the White House, saying efforts this week to engage Mexican...

Two Chicago suburbs rejected busloads of immigrants that arrived from El Paso, Texas, over the past week as the city and Illinois as a whole continue to face an influx of illegal immigrants from the southern border. Several buses arrived at the Metra stations in Cicero, Illinois, and Rosemont, Illinois, near the O'Hare International Airport's remote parking area, according to the Chicago Tribune. Rosemont police allowed the immigrants to get off the bus if there was someone picking them up, but officers threatened to impound the bus and arrest the driver for endangering the passengers if he let them out,...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has begun filing dozens of lawsuits against "rogue" bus companies transporting migrants from the southern border. In an effort to show the seriousness of the migrant crisis, some Republican governors have sent buses of migrants to Democrat-controlled states and sanctuary cities. These Republicans argue the action is necessary to show the rest of the country what border states are dealing with due to the surge of migrants. The Chicago Tribune (The Tribune) went into detail about how Johnson’s administration has begun filing lawsuits against those behind the transportation of migrants. "The care of more than 24,400...

The Boulder Valley School District says it wants to replace its diesel school buses with more environmentally friendly green buses. However, the district is going to buy five new diesel school buses because the electric and propane-powered buses won't hold up on the more demanding routes. The district is set to approve the purchase of five new diesel passenger school buses for $714,876. The district is expected to approve the new school buses at its Oct. 24 meeting. The district said the new diesel buses are needed because, "diesel school buses are essential for mountain routes due to their robust...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the busing of nearly 52,000 migrants from the border region to self-proclaimed sanctuary cities nationwide. Under Operation Lone Star, Governor Abbott ordered the Texas Division of Emergency Management to begin busing migrants from border towns to sanctuary cities in April 2022. Since that time, Abbott reported that nearly 52,000 migrants were transported to six sanctuary cities. Texas has bused over 50,000 migrants to sanctuary cities to provide relief to overwhelmed border towns. These cities experience a fraction of what Texas border communities face daily. Busing will continue until Biden secures the border. pic.twitter.com/ZrivI2brnZ — Greg...

"According to Cowboy State Daily, a Wyoming-based news organization, Wyoming’s Teton County and the town of Jackson purchased eight electric buses, all of which have broken down and will no longer run."

With asylum-seekers expected to arrive in Chicago at a peak 25 busloads a day, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is stepping up criticism of the federal government’s response to the crisis, writing in a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday that Illinois is in an “untenable situation.” With asylum-seekers expected to arrive in Chicago at a peak 25 busloads a day, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is stepping up criticism of the federal government’s response to the crisis, writing in a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday that Illinois is in an “untenable situation.”

Gary Marbut and the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA) have scored another victory in restoring the right to keep and bear arms in Montana. The Montana Urban Transportation District (MUTD) has removed its ban on the carry or transport of weapons on the vehicles of the Mountain Line in Missoula. Gary Marbut is the right to keep and bear arms guru in Montana. He is responsible for writing and passing most of the Montana gun laws. Those laws have done a great deal to restore the right to keep and bear arms (RKBA). In 2016, MSSA requested MUTD remove its...