Arctic blast fuels scrutiny of Biden’s $8B electric bus push as watchdogs cite oversight failures
EXCLUSIVE: The Arctic blast that snowed in much of the East exposed not only the need for road salt but the possibility that untold taxpayer dollars were wasted on risky electric bus subsidy programs under the Biden administration, according to critics of those initiatives.
That’s the claim from Power the Future, a top energy advocacy and watchdog group that also compared the disbursement of more than $8 billion over at least two related federal subsidy programs to oversight failures by the Minnesota government involving its Medicaid and childcare entitlement crises recently exposed.
E-buses have been purchased by transit agencies in part through a "Low-No" emissions grant program mainly through the Federal Transit Administration that received a $1.6 billion infusion during the Biden years.
"Given the scale of this investment, there must be an examination into whether taxpayers are receiving the reliable, deployable transit assets capable of serving the communities for which they were funded," Power the Future (PTF) President Daniel Turner said.
Similarly, PTF highlighted a 2024 EPA Inspector General audit that found the agency failed to meaningfully track the deployment of electric school buses under a 2022 rebate program through which $836 million was handed out by federal officials.
Only about 7% of participating school districts had completed the processes needed to put the buses into service, such as installing charging infrastructure.
"When hundreds of millions of dollars are awarded without confirmation that buses are delivered, operable or in service, the absence of oversight echoes the failures that are being highlighted in Minnesota," PTF wrote.
PTF said the Biden administration’s "broader record" on "green infrastructure" spending is further exposed by these and other disbursements and requires Zeldin’s immediate attention.I
It cited an additional $7.5 billion spent on the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, under which fewer than 400 charging ports were built as of late.
"When this failure is viewed alongside electric buses that cannot operate in cold weather, school buses that sit idle and grants producing little to no functional infrastructure, a troubling pattern emerges," PTF said.
"Taken together, these outcomes raise the same red flags now familiar from the Minnesota daycare fraud scandal: large federal payouts with minimal verification, poor oversight and taxpayers left holding the bill."
An EPA Inspector General statement from October regarding the school bus program said "three material weaknesses so significant that they could lead to material misstatements in the Agency’s financial statements" were found.
"The EPA did not monitor bus deployment status and recipient use of over $836 million of 2022 Clean School Bus, or CSB, Program rebates, despite the Agency stating it would do so," another OIG report from 2024 said.
"At a minimum, these programs warrant immediate scrutiny to determine whether incompetence alone explains the results or whether fraud and misrepresentation are also at play," PTF wrote.
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As a test case, Turner pointed to buses purchased by Vermont’s Green Mountain Transit, which had previously procured five electric buses with the help of federal funds.
During the recent storm, Turner said, e-buses have a tougher time charging and operating in below-freezing temperatures, as evidenced by cases in New York and New England. This is a known limitation of battery performance in cold weather.
School districts in Western New York have had issues piloting the buses in the cold, and Turner told Fox News Digital the grants do not take into account the needs of schoolchildren over prioritizing green politics.
PTF also cited a case in Maine, where a school superintendent said her district received four "bad buses" from a now-bankrupt Canadian EV firm. One e-bus's brakes failed recently and crashed into a snowbank, according to WGME.
"Costing nearly $8 million, more than 95 percent of the funding for these five buses came from American taxpayers [and] requires serious questions be asked," PTF wrote to Zeldin.
"These buses were purchased to operate in Vermont’s climate, yet reports indicate they cannot be reliably charged in temperatures below 41 degrees. With the average winter temperature in Burlington hovering in the mid 20s, the vehicles, which cost more than $1.5 million apiece, are unusable under predictable winter conditions."
Green Mountain Transit General Manager Clayton Clark told Fox News Digital that his five e-buses "being inoperable have nothing to do with the storm. The batteries were recalled by the manufacturer," adding local media erroneously reported the snow had been the main factor.
He also said that media reports had incorrectly stated the 41-degree issue always existed, quipping, "We never would have purchased buses with that [requirement] in Vermont" and that the threshold originated from new recall information from the manufacturer.
"We know that the manufacturer will be 18–24 months [until we get] new batteries. We look at this as the buses were working A-OK before this situation. Considering the 12-year life cycle to be out for a few months is not indicative of the program being a failure. This is no different than a safety recall that we would get for a diesel bus.
"Folks across the political spectrum (are) looking to make hay, [but we] don’t look at it as a failure of the program."
Asked about Clark's comments, Turner said that cold-weather agencies should have known they were using experimental technology not as proven as 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."
Turner told Fox News Digital that while "these [green] games are ongoing, there are schoolchildren who cannot get to class because they are fixing problems that they themselves created."
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's office for comment.
EPA spokesman Michael Bastasch told Fox News Digital the EPA is actively "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 and not frivolously wasted as was often the case under the previous administration."
"Under Administrator Zeldin’s leadership, EPA is committed to being exceptional stewards of taxpayer dollars and delivering measured results for American families, while still fulfilling Congressional intent," Bastasch said, adding that Zeldin has already canceled $30 billion in wasteful grants and contracts.