Q&A
Electrification efforts for school buses
0:57:38
·
82 sec
Council Member Avilés inquires about DEP's role in pursuing and ensuring the electrification of the school bus fleet. Commissioner Aggarwala outlines current initiatives and progress in this area.
- DEP is not directly responsible for school bus electrification, but the administration prioritizes vehicle electrification
- New York City recently received a large federal grant for electric school buses
- The city now has the largest fleet of electric school buses, though still small in scale
- State law will require school bus electrification over the next 5-10 years
Alexa Avilés
0:57:38
No.
0:57:38
I know.
0:57:39
Okay.
0:57:39
In terms of the you mentioning your testimony electrification being one of the the the key elements here, How how is DP pursuing and ensuring that that the state and the city are incentivizing and moving very aggressively to fully electrifying our school bus fleet?
Rohit T. Aggarwala
0:58:05
Well, council member first of all, as you know, DEP is not in charge of either the school buses or or vehicle electrification.
0:58:16
However, this administration has made vehicle electrification a significant priority, as I said in my testimony.
0:58:23
Several months ago, we celebrated a very large federal grant that NICE BUS Received, and in fact, I was speaking with the CEO of NICE BUSINESSES the other day, who was able proudly to inform me that New York City is now the home to the largest fleet of electric school buses.
0:58:40
It's still pretty small.
0:58:42
Because it's still just starting, and the first vehicles are being delivered, but they are there.
0:58:47
And we think that is one of our biggest opportunities.
0:58:50
And as you know, the state law now will require school buses to electrify as well.
0:58:56
So we think that's very promising over the next 5 to 10 years.
James F. Gennaro
0:59:00
And also I just want to jump in that at the end of 2021, we did a Danny Drum bill on school buses that creates I think it dates certain it's off the top of my head.
