Electric school buses in Oakland will help stabilize the grid

Startup Zum has launched the U.S.'s largest all-electric school-bus fleet in Oakland, using these buses as grid-supporting batteries to improve both transportation and energy reliability.

Jeff St. John reports for Canary Media.

In short:

Zum deployed 74 electric school buses in Oakland, aiming to cut harmful emissions and reduce air pollution.
The buses use vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology to charge during off-peak hours and discharge power when the grid is stressed.
Federal and state incentives helped fund the project, but only 2% of U.S. school buses are electric.

Key quote:

"PG&E was able to step up to the challenge and deliver the energy to power these buses — and we were able to do it a year early."

— Patti Poppe, CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric

Why this matters:

Electric school buses reduce emissions and can support the grid when demand spikes, lowering reliance on fossil fuels. However, expanding this model faces hurdles due to high costs and limited infrastructure.

www.canarymedia.com

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.

Electric school buses in Oakland will help stabilize the grid

Federal heat policy ignores deadly risks despite increasing climate dangers

States profit from lands on tribal reservations, hindering tribal sovereignty

London's low-emission zone got kids out of cars and onto their feet

Biden's green energy policies are expected to save lives and grow jobs, reports show

Illinois carbon capture project faces early corrosion issues, raising long-term safety concerns

A pipeline explosion in Texas causes evacuation and damages homes

Car travel now exceeds pre-pandemic levels in most US cities

The fossil fuel industry is disproportionately harming low-income and minority women: Report

“Women, in all of their diversity, must be at the center of climate and energy decision-making.”

Op-ed: People need shelter from climate change — their health hangs in the balance

The discourse on climate resilience must include affordable housing policy solutions.

As Biden prepares to block the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel, pollution concerns persist in Pennsylvania

“Pennsylvania steel communities have lived with dangerous air quality for generations. That needs to end.”

LISTEN: Elijah Hutchinson on New York City’s push for climate justice

"Environmental justice itself is for the first time in the title of the climate office."

A Pennsylvania fracking company with more than 2,000 environmental violations selected for federal environmental justice funding

CNX Resources is slated to receive Justice40 dollars for self-monitoring. Health and justice advocates are outraged.

Op-ed: “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you” — disabling environments in Cancer Alley and the Ohio River Valley

For communities plagued by energy extraction and petrochemical buildout, struggles of environmental justice often fall on deaf ears.