(The Center Square) — New York will delay a controversial mandate to convert its school buses from diesel to electric for at least five years, under a plan tucked into the state budget that is drawing praise from school administrators.
The $268 billion spending plan, expected to be approved this week in a series of votes by the state Legislature, includes a provision that would postpone a requirement to purchase new zero-emission purchases until 2032, and the planned full conversion of the state’s busing fleet to 2040, providing some breathing room for school districts struggling to afford the cost of the mandate.
The move was praised by the New York State School Boards Association, which said it “creates a window” for school districts, bus manufacturers and utility companies to work out cost and reliability issues with the new technology.
“While we are supportive of protecting our environment, we must also ensure that school buses have the necessary battery-life to safely deliver our children to school and back home again,” the board said in a statement. “There are budget, power grid and support infrastructure challenges that must also be overcome to enable the smooth transition to electric buses.
But the American Lung Association said it was “deeply disappointed” by the move to delay the mandate, noting that buses transport 2.3 million children to and from school every day in New York, with 95% of them running on diesel.
“There is clear scientific evidence demonstrating the effects of diesel exhaust exposure on the human body, including asthma attacks, premature deaths, and cancer” the association said in a statement. “Rather than eliminating public health protection for our kids, lawmakers should be looking to do more, not less, to protect our kids from the well-documented harms of school bus emissions.”
New York passed a law in 2022 mandating that all new school buses be electric starting in 2027, with all buses on the road meeting this standard by 2035. The move was aimed at helping the state meet its climate reduction goals.
But a 2025 report by the Empire Center for Public Policy estimated the mandate to convert buses for the state’s 370 school districts to e-vehicles would cost taxpayers more than $9 billion over the next 10 years.
The report said the state also didn’t budget for “grid-related costs” when it set the mandate, leaving cash-strapped school districts on the hook for “tens of millions of dollars” for infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the new e-bus fleets. The average cost of an e-bus is $400,000, compared to traditional gas-powered buses which cost around $130,000, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Critics of New York’s mandate also note that other states with cold winters have been experiencing problems with the charging of the vehicles, which limits their reliability. They cite reports that electric buses are “gathering dust” in garages because of mechanical problems, hard-to-access parts, and technical support.
State Assemblyman Robert Smullen, R-Mohawk Valley, filed a bill that would allow school districts to opt out of New York’s zero-emission school bus mandate, citing concerns about costs and feasibility. He praised the decision to delay the mandate but called for it to be scrapped entirely.
“New York’s electric school bus mandate was a bad policy from the start — and delaying it doesn’t solve the problem,” Smullen posted Wednesday on social media. “Our school districts are already stretched thin, and forcing an expensive, unfunded mandate onto local taxpayers was never the answer.”
