Electric Bus Programs Face Scrutiny Following Cold-Weather Failures and Oversight Concerns

The recent Arctic blast that paralyzed much of the Eastern United States has exposed potential weaknesses in federally funded electric bus programs, raising questions about the effectiveness of billions in taxpayer dollars spent on green transportation initiatives during the Biden administration.

Energy advocacy group Power the Future (PTF) is calling for an investigation into what they describe as inadequate oversight of federal electric bus subsidies, comparing the situation to Minnesota’s recent Medicaid and childcare entitlement crises where fraud and mismanagement were uncovered.

“Given the scale of this investment, there must be an examination into whether taxpayers are receiving reliable, deployable transit assets capable of serving the communities for which they were funded,” said Daniel Turner, President of Power the Future.

At the center of the controversy is the Federal Transit Administration’s “Low-No” emissions grant program, which received a $1.6 billion boost under the Biden administration. Additionally, an EPA Inspector General audit released in 2024 found significant shortcomings in a $836 million electric school bus rebate program launched in 2022. According to the audit, only about 7% of participating school districts had completed the necessary processes to put these buses into service, including installing charging infrastructure.

The Inspector General identified “three material weaknesses so significant that they could lead to material misstatements in the Agency’s financial statements” and noted that “the EPA did not monitor bus deployment status and recipient use of over $836 million of 2022 Clean School Bus Program rebates, despite the Agency stating it would do so.”

PTF also highlighted concerns with the $7.5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which has reportedly built fewer than 400 charging ports despite substantial investment.

The practical limitations of electric buses in cold weather have added fuel to these concerns. In Vermont, Green Mountain Transit purchased five electric buses with federal funding at a cost of more than $1.5 million each. According to PTF, these vehicles are currently inoperable due to a manufacturer’s battery recall.

Green Mountain Transit General Manager Clayton Clark disputed some of PTF’s characterizations, telling Fox News Digital that the buses’ inoperability “has nothing to do with the storm” but rather with a manufacturer recall. He added that incorrect media reports suggested the buses couldn’t operate below 41 degrees, stating, “We never would have purchased buses with that requirement in Vermont.”

Clark emphasized that the recall issue is “no different than a safety recall that we would get for a diesel bus” and that the program should not be considered a failure due to a temporary setback in a 12-year lifecycle.

Turner countered that transit agencies should have known they were adopting experimental technology not as proven as traditional internal-combustion buses. “At no point does anyone who has a gas-powered bus have to play these games, introducing new sets of variables. We are still sacrificing the children for a pretend cause,” he said.

Other regions have reported similar challenges. School districts in Western New York have experienced difficulties operating electric buses in cold weather, and in Maine, a school superintendent reported that one electric bus’s brakes failed recently, causing it to crash into a snowbank. That district had received four buses from a now-bankrupt Canadian electric vehicle manufacturer.

EPA spokesman Michael Bastasch told Fox News Digital that under Trump-appointed Administrator Lee Zeldin, the agency is “revamping the Clean School Bus Program in accordance with President Trump’s executive order: Unleashing American Energy to ensure hard-earned American tax dollars are being put to the best use possible.”

Bastasch added that the EPA is “committed to being exceptional stewards of taxpayer dollars and delivering measured results for American families,” noting that Zeldin has already canceled $30 billion in what the agency considers wasteful grants and contracts.

As cold weather continues to test infrastructure across the country, the debate over electric bus viability and federal funding oversight is likely to intensify, with implications for future green transportation initiatives.