Lawmakers claim the Biden-Harris administration’s billion-dollar clean bus project is promoting carbon reliance. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) details the cost of taxpayer-funded energy initiatives in a scathing new report.
The Biden administration authorized the Clean School Bus Program in 2021, appropriating $5 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to encourage the replacement of school buses with “clean” alternatives.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has released a report. 51 page report The project was reviewed by Fox News Digital, which pushed for electric school buses over “cheaper” low-emission alternatives and described how “vulnerabilities for waste, fraud and abuse plague the program.”
“Costly subsidies for ESBs are a misuse of federal taxpayer money at a time when pressure on school budgets is increasing,” the report states. “Currently, only heavy taxpayer-funded subsidies enable ESBs to compete with diesel buses and low-emission buses in the marketplace.”
Vice President Kamala Harris disembarks from a new electric-powered school bus while visiting Meridian High School in Falls Church, Virginia, on May 20, 2022. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The committee claims that the EPA funding structure “incentivized districts” to choose electric school bus options.
According to the committee’s findings, the average diesel school bus costs approximately $100,000, while the average electric school bus in the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebate Program costs $381,190.
Supporters of electric buses told lawmakers that the initiative reduced operating costs compared to diesel buses, but the committee argued in the report that “the savings do not even come close to compensating for the hefty initial cost.”
The committee also cited “serious security vulnerabilities” arising from dependence on China for mineral mining.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael S. Regan speaks during an event to highlight funding for electric school buses at Coral Reef High School in Richmond Heights, Florida, on March 11, 2024. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“ESB batteries rely on opaque supply chains that are fraught with national security risks and pose serious human rights concerns, and are beneficial to hostile regimes like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has a monopoly on parts of the supply chain for these products,” the report reads. “Promoting EVs like ESB means enriching the People’s Republic of China and the CCP, as Morgan Stanley estimates that 90% of the EV battery supply chain depends on China.”
The committee also said Chinese companies would mine lithium in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, “enriching both China and the Taliban,” said former US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul A. Brinkley.
The committee said that during its investigation it contacted some schools that received funding from the EPA and found that the agency “did not seek verification of veracity from applicants, lacked procedures to verify applicants’ claims, and relied on inadequate self-certification to determine whether applicants met EPA requirements.”
An electric bus parks at Coral Reef High School on March 11, 2024 in Richmond Heights, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“This program, led by a radical Biden-Harris EPA, promotes a market that relies heavily on a supply chain dominated by the Chinese Communist Party. Furthermore, the program was created without necessary safeguards to prevent fraud and encourages schools to use buses they would not otherwise choose,” the committee chairmen wrote in a statement.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for 2024 president, Vocal supporter Plan to replace old buses with electric vehicles.
“Who doesn’t love a yellow school bus, right? Can you raise your hand if you love a yellow school bus? Many of us have gone to school on a yellow school bus, right? It’s part of our experience growing up,” Harris said, speaking at Seattle’s Lumen Field in 2022. “It’s part of the nostalgia, the memory of the excitement and joy of going to school, with your favorite teacher, with your best friends, and learning. The school bus gets us there.”
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks after touring an electric school bus in Falls Church, Virginia, on May 20, 2022. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
When asked about the report, the EPA told Fox News Digital that the program is “creating a future for our children that they deserve — a future with clean air on buses, in bus loading areas, and in the communities where they operate.”
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“EPA appreciates Congress’ continued interest in the Clean School Bus Program. EPA is committed to oversight and accountability and to ensuring these funds are delivering the clean air and climate benefits communities deserve. EPA continues to work with a diverse group of stakeholders, including OIG, to continually improve the program’s design, implementation, and monitoring,” the agency said in a statement.
