Should Kamala Harris Curb Her Climate Enthusiasm?

Unfortunately the vice president is getting a little carried away when describing the alleged benefits of such machines. On Thursday Ms. Harris visited a factory in St. Cloud, Minn., and said of electric buses, according to the White House:

They are healthier for people, cleaner for communities, and better for our planet. . . . And electric buses are also cheaper to run and more reliable than gas-powered buses. Cities and towns with electric fleets spend less on gas and maintenance. And as some of the leaders here can attest, that means more money in the local budget to add more routes, more stops, and more drivers. And that means more reliable service. So, you know, for anyone who’s had to wait too long in the cold because the bus is late, you know how much that matters.

All of this to say electric buses are key to the future of public transportation in America—which is why, since taking office, together with Democrats and Republicans, we have invested over $5.5 billion to put thousands of new electric transit buses on the streets of our nation.

As with so many other projects presented as climate solutions, one has to ask why the federal government needs to hand out subsidies if such vehicles really cost less than the alternatives. Wouldn’t states and cities already have placed huge orders? Commuters may have noticed that even in left-leaning political jurisdictions demand for buses powered by fossil fuels remains robust.

This is especially true in colder climes, which brings us to the Harris reliability claim. In September this column noted reporting from Alaska’s Juneau Empire on the devil of a time local officials had trying to get reliable service out of their expensive electric bus.

A November report in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that a battery fire occurred in an e-bus that was already out of service—one of a fleet of 25 that have been inactive since 2020.

Some cities have ordered hybrids or have sought other ways to avoid forcing customers to rely entirely on battery power. Robert McCarthy reported last year in the Buffalo News on Metro bus No. 2251, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s new electric bus:

The effort will prove expensive, as No. 2251 carries a price tag of almost $1 million, compared to about $550,000 for a new diesel bus. But because national and state policy assigns a top priority to reducing and even eliminating engine emissions, the goal is now an authority priority, too.

“In the end, it’s all about air quality,” said Jeffrey Sweet, the NFTA’s equipment engineer who oversees the transition. “That’s behind this move to go electric.”

Mr. McCarthy noted the need to build new charging infrastructure for an electric fleet and added:

Buffalo and its cold winters present another challenge—heat for an electric bus. Sweet explained that each bus will be equipped with a 225 horsepower diesel engine to power heaters, since electric buses produce no excess heat on their own and batteries fail below 40 degrees. The auxiliary diesels provide reliable heat for a bus stranded during a snowstorm, he said, and will prove cost effective—even if not totally zero emission.

“When you look at the cost of a bus and the needs of our passengers, it comes down to not lowering the bar,” he said. “I feel we are not a good steward of the taxpayers’ money if we pay $2 million for a bus (with batteries) for winter.

“It’s designed for Buffalo,” he added.

Sounds like such batteries are very expensive, especially if they can’t always be relied upon to serve customers in icy temperatures.

Maybe the vice president should reserve at least some of her enthusiasm for the cheap fossil fuels that riders still need.

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The Lost Children of the Lockdown
The Journal’s Ben Chapman reports:

Districts have lost track of thousands of students who left public schools since the pandemic began, and it is unclear how many of them are truant or unreported home-schoolers, according to a new study.

An analysis of enrollment data conducted by Stanford University in collaboration with the Associated Press found that there were no records last school year for more than 240,000 school-age children living in 21 states and the District of Columbia, which provided recent enrollment details.

Nationwide, public-school enrollment in kindergarten through grade 12 fell by roughly 1.2 million students between fall 2019 and fall 2021, according to the study’s analysis of Education Department data . . . 

To be clear, many kids have left public schools for a better opportunity. Mr. Chapman reports:

An estimated 26% of children who left public schools during the first two years of the pandemic switched to home-schools, the research found.

Private-school enrollment grew less, climbing 4% higher from the 2019-20 school year to the 2021-22 school year . . . according to the study by Thomas S. Dee, a Stanford University professor who specializes in the economics of education.

Let’s hope that the rest of the missing are unreported homeschoolers, but the large numbers suggest another ongoing tragedy from the lockdowns that disrupted daily student life. Mr. Chapman adds:

. . . more than a third of the loss in public-school enrollment in the 22 jurisdictions analyzed over that time period can’t be explained by gains in private-school and home-school enrollment, or by demographic change, said Dr. Dee.

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James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival.”

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(Lisa Rossi helps compile Best of the Web.)

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