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Special Report
No Free Rides School bus manufacturers mull over ways to implement the latest emissions rules as school districts seek explanations about the new technologies and what they will cost
WRITTEN BY ART GISSENDANER T
his past August when the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic and Safe- ty Administration announced their Phase 2 rule for reducing greenhouse gases and improving fuel efficiency, the concern among school districts was, and still is, the potential financial burden that might accompany what essentially is an unfunded mandate from the feds. Te rule was released in a massive 1,690-page document that has school bus and component manufacturers scrambling to decipher its provisions and determine its impact on the industry. Tey are keeping low profiles and choosing their words carefully until more is known about the implications of the new standards. What is known is there is some time to determine the exact road to take, as implementation of the new rule does not begin until 2021. “Everybody is still reviewing the rule,” said Bruce Miles, Blue
Bird’s director government specifications and product validation as well as a member of the School Bus Manufacturers Technical Council. “And there’s a lot of supporting documentation to go along with that as well.” Te SBMTC is a group within the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services and operates as the
16 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2016
technical adviser to the school bus industry. Miles said the normal procedure is for individual manufacturers to review the rule and bring any individual concerns to the council for discussion. “No concerns have been expressed to the council that as yet I am aware of,” he added. Te EPA and NHTSA say in their document, which by page count is 250 pages longer than War and Peace and three times longer than Moby Dick, the Phase 2 program will include “tech- nology-advancing” standards to reduce GHG emissions and fuel consumption. Tis, they add, will result in an “ambitious, yet achievable” program that will allow manufacturers to meet standards over time through a mixture of different technologies “at reasonable cost.” Phase 2 is expected to lower CO2 emissions by about 1.1 billion metric tons, save vehicle owners about $170 billion in fuel costs and reduce oil consumption by up to 2 billion barrels. EPA and NHTSA enacted the rules based upon existing and developing technologies, and the largesse of school bus and component manufacturers to put those technologies within the fiscal reach of school districts. EPA and NHTSA are banking on school districts recouping any increase in the initial cash outlay for the new tech-
CELEBRATING25YEARS
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