County’s Electric Bus Program Resulted In Millions Of Dollars In ‘Wasteful Spending’

An investigation into a Maryland school system’s electric bus initiative found that it resulted in millions of dollars in “wasteful spending” due to issues with the vehicles, according to a report from the county’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released in late July.

In February 2021, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland announced it was replacing 326 diesel school buses with electric buses as part of its sustainability initiative, the county OIG concluded in the report. Due to delayed deliveries and frequent mechanical issues with the electric buses, the county has had to partially resort back to diesel buses despite the roughly $170 million it paid for the new fleet.

“All of the buses received during fiscal years (FY) 2022-2024 were delivered beyond the contractually required delivery date,” the OIG report stated. As a result, MCPS spent “over $14 million to acquire diesel buses to compensate for not receiving the anticipated electric school buses.”

In addition to the delays, many of the electric buses have been “inoperable for extended periods,” with the OIG estimating that “MCPS should have assessed the [electric bus] contractor approximately $372,000 for failing to provide serviceable buses between FYs 2022 and 2024.”

“MCPS Financial Manual defines waste as ‘the extravagant, careless, or needless expenditure of MCPS funds, or the consumption of MCPS resources that results from deficient practices, systems, controls, or decisions.’” the report reads. “MCPS’s failure to hold the contractor accountable to the terms of the contract and their decision not to include a provision to offset incurred expenses has led to millions of dollars of wasteful spending.”

The now-former MCPS Superintendent, Dr. Monifa McKnight, originally claimed electric school buses would save the county money.

“We are going to be saving upwards of 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel per day,” McKnight said during a 2022 press conference touting the initiative, according to Electrek. “Immediately this is going to cut costs by 50%.”

Rollouts for electric buses across the country have been plagued with issues, including reports of the vehicles bursting into flames due to battery malfunctions in Wichita, Kansas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Hamden, Connecticut, since July 2022. Additionally, eight electric buses purchased by a Democratic enclave in Wyoming became indefinitely inoperable in 2023 after the buses began experiencing mechanical issues and their manufacturer, Proterra, went bankrupt.

Despite these issues, the Biden administration has continued to push for electric buses and electric vehicles more broadly, including handing out, or announcing plans to hand out, roughly $10 billion to states and territories for the purchase of electric and low-emission buses. In May, the administration announced it was handing out another $900 million to pay for green school buses in its bid to lower carbon emissions.

MCPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.