PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • December 8, 2024
Defective electric school buses provided to eight Maine school districts by Lion Electric, a now cash-strapped Canadian manufacturer, have wreaked havoc throughout the state. It is deeply unfortunate that Maine’s first interaction with the Clean School Bus Program, a rebate initiative managed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has panned out this way. By 2035, the agency wants 75% of all new American public school buses to be electric. What should have been a bold and encouraging step in the right direction, one funded by the federal government to the tune of $5 billion nationally, has stirred disillusionment and doubt in our communities. Not only, then, do we not have safe and dependable fleets of school buses, we have a vexing breach of public faith and trust that will take some recovering from.