Get Energy Smart! NOW!

To address climate change, boost economic performance, and increase energy resiliency, we must electrify everything. As part of this, electrifying U.S. school buses is a particularly beneficial move that can and should occur rapidly.

With Dominion Energy and Governor Northam announcements of electric school bus (ESB) demonstration projects last year, Virginia seemed truly on the cusp of being the national leader in ESBs with the real potential to radically change the industry while bringing huge benefits to the Commonwealth and its citizens (improved student health and performance; reduced pollution; better service; improved grid resiliency; reduced costs; job creation).

Entering Virginia’s legislative session, with multiple (sigh, troubled, all meriting improvement) bills, it appeared likely that there would be some form of reasonable compromise that would create a legal structure for Virginia to set off a path to electrifying school transportation at a reasonable (even if not as fast as appropriate pace). Regrettably, this is not how the session progressed.

Writ large, other than Dominion lobbyists, relevant interest groups and experts seemed to have been sitting on the side. (Due, almost certainly in large part, to the energy required for negotiating and securing passage of the Clean Energy Act.) Rather than strengthening and improving ESB-related legislation, the legislature’s final hours will have open for consideration a bill that seemingly came via dictation from Dominion lobbyists. This bill, Senator Lucas’s SB1096, subordinates public and ratepayer interest to Dominion executive and shareholder interests.

SB1096

• Restricts regulatory oversight authorities on Dominion’s decision-making about buses and charges to the ratepayer for the program through defining it as “in the public interest”. (paragraph E)
• Prioritizes, above all else, Dominion’s interests in decision-making about which school districts will get ESBs by solely identifying “locational benefits that the school buses’ storage batteries are expected to bring“. (B.4) [Note: this is an example of how this bill weakens the situation. HB75, for example, had this language when originally introduced but with engagement with the sponsor from concerned groups and individuals, this was deleted. The original version of SB1096, from 5 March, didn’t have it but for some reason the clause was added back in.]
• Mandates (reflecting Dominion’s questionable priorities) “active lap-and-shoulder belt occupant restraint system” for every ESB (b.8), at a cost of $10,000 per bus (or $12.5 million across a 1250 ESB demonstration project), even though neither Virginia nor the Federal government require this on buses (only one Virginia school district requires this), nor does analysis appear to justify this high cost to school districts.
• Has uncertain (left open for future negotiation) safeguards against Dominion mismanaging ESB batteries and leaving school systems’ stranded without student transportation. (B.5)
• Creates a structure that will enable Dominion to dictate terms for electrifying all 17,000 of Virginia’s school buses — even if actual ‘well-regulated’ market capitalism could provide (far) better solutions.
• Does not have
  • a mandate for analysis and assessment of ESB cost-benefit streams nor of ESB program deployment;
  • prioritization of societal benefit streams (such as public health, environmental justice, …) in deployment decision-making;
  • safeguards against excess Dominion profiteering;
  • provide for real public entity visibility over Dominion’s cost structures and internal decision-making related to what will, eventually, be $Bs of public-entity investment streams.

Prior to and amid the legislative session, ESB proponents (including me) saw real potential for working with Dominion to come out with win-win-win legislation that make this more of a public-private partnership, potentially secure greater benefits for the Commonwealth (such as ESB manufacturing), open paths for accelerating ESB deployment even faster than Dominion called for and outside Dominion’s service area, and all while providing for Dominion making reasonable (rather excess) profits through a market-driving Virginia ESB deployment.

Sigh, that is not the case.

Instead, in its waning hours, the Legislature will be left with an epitome of The Virginia Way: a Dominion Energy written bill that will subordinate public and ratepayer interest to enabling excess profiteering and a private entity to dictate on issues (like school bus restraints) that truly should be made by informed public servants (elected and otherwise) working on behalf of public interest, not private shareholders.

I am pained. To tackle the climate crisis, we must electrify everything — fast. As an energy/climate/business issues analyst, a concerned citizen, and a parent, I am very well aware that electric school buses represent an extremely high-payoff ‘electrify everything’ opportunity. As a Virginian, I was excited about the potential not just for Virginia to be a real leader in making this a reality but for the Commonwealth to leverage the choice to be a leader for creating 1,000s of high-quality manufacturing jobs (potentially as economic development in coal-industry dependent communities). I was enthused. And, now I am despondent.

When it comes to SB1096, when the Speaker asks the Delegates “Shall the bill pass“, regrettably, the answer should be a resounding NO!

NOTES:

1. Here is an example about the lack of engagement from groups that might have been valuable as part of the discussion. On Sunday Clean Virginia sent “urgent” email calling on people to contact legislators to “Stop Dominion’s Last-Minute Profit Grab”. A Mothers Out Front (which is strongly advocating for ESBs across the nation) Virginia leader had this reaction to that email: “Why the [heck] didn’t anyone care about this a month ago? Ugh.”
2. Reflective of a long interest in and support for plug-in hybrid electric school buses (PHESBs) and Electric School Buses (ESBs), here are some relevant posts.

• Restraints on School Buses: Don’t mandate without public policy/cost-benefit analysis (Virginia ESB edition), 6 March 2020, calling for replacement of seat-belt mandate in ESB legislation with cost-benefit analysis mandate to support future decision-making.
• Progress (not perfection): Electric School Bus (ESB) in Virginia legislature, 5 March 2020, recommending HB75 with some changes while highlighting issues of concern unlikely for legislators to address.
• Some insights re Dominion ESB program from a recent meeting, 6 Feb 2020, highlights issues which local school districts might want to focus on in decision-making about electric school buses.
• Dominion buckling itself in the driver’s seat: Electric School Bus edition, 1 Feb 2020, questions whether a private firm should dictate public policy with an examination of the complexity of school bus cost-benefit analysis.
• Who killed the Electric School Bus? 31 Jan 2020. Highlights how an ESB manufacturer is promoting pro-diesel fuel disinformation.
• Beware of shiny objects: Examples from (Dominion) Virginia Electric School Bus discussions, 31 Jan 2020, calls for a focus on core issues of, assessment of full cost-benefit streams from, and avoid distractions in development of an ESB program.
• Thinking about Virginia legislature and (Dominion) Electric School Bus legislation, 24 Jan 2020, calls for legislators to consider how (and how much) a smartly structured ESB program could benefit all Virginians, including the economic development implications of a ‘made in Virginia’ requirement in this market-creating program.
• Dominion Energy ESB (Electric School Bus) Program advances: questions remain, 16 Jan 2020, highlights the announcement of where Dominion will be placing the initial 50 school buses.
• Legislating for Electric School Buses: Some Thoughts and Principles …, 6 Dec 2019, calls for developing a truly Public-Private Partnership, rather than private interest driven, ESB program; that the project should be accelerated; there is a need for robust cost-benefit analysis; and that Virginia should leverage an ESB program for economic development.
• Dominion Virginia Energy’s Electrifying Bus Announcement: Thoughts on this potentially game changing move, 3 Sept 2019, lays out the Dominion announced program, discusses benefits from ESBs, and issues meriting consideration as Virginia goes electric.
• Mobilizing momentum for cleaner, cheaper school busing (Electric School Buses, Fairfax County, VA, edition), 29 Aug 2019, discusses a Mothers Out Front Fairfax electric school bus event featuring multiple elected officials.
• Electrifying Momentum Toward Electric Buses (Fairfax County, Virginia, edition), 20 Aug 2019, provides an overview of the benefit streams that accrue from moving from diesel-powered to ESBs.
• DC’s electric buses — for tourists and for urban health, 1 May 2018, highlights some benefit streams from going electric.
• Systems Power: Three thoughts for Virginia’s next governor, 17 Aug 2017, lays out why soon-to-be Governor Northam should pursue a Plug-In Hybrid Electric School Bus (PHESB) program.
• Clean Energy Jobs Take The PHE-School Bus, 20 Nov 2009, lays out a five-year program to drive down PHESB costs to make them cost-competitive with diesel buses (using a seven year total cost period) while creating over 2,000 jobs as part of the recovery program.
• Obama Admin Plugging In School Buses, 20 Apr 2009, discusses a $10 million, 60 PHESB demonstration program.
• Energize America: W5 Solution: PHESBs, 5 Jan 2009, lays out how PHESBs would provide wins across five domains: job creation; boost economic performance; strengthen long-term economic competitiveness; enhance energy security; and reduce emissions.
• Plugging in for a better tomorrow: the school bus ‘solution’, 16 Dec 2008, lays out why PHESBs make sense and how a 1000 purchase order could drive down purchase prices by over 50 percent.