P-J File Photo by Braden Carmen Guests in attendance at a recent event at Pine Valley Elementary School looked under the hood of an electric school bus from the Gates Chili Central School District.

State Sen. George Borrello isn’t giving up on his efforts to influence state policy on zero-emission school buses.

On Friday, the Sunset Bay Republican introduced S.9941 to require all electric school buses and the major components thereof that are purchased by New York school districts are manufactured in the United States. The legislation would also make it clear that the requirement to purchase electric school buses can be waived in the event that such purchases would result in unreasonable costs or would not otherwise be in the public interest.

“By mandating that the electric school buses and their components be manufactured and assembled in the United States, New York taxpayers will be supporting the U.S. economy and promoting a much better environmental outcome, especially since US manufactures face strict environmental standards,” Borrello wrote in his legislative justification.

There is worry amongst some school administrators, including Joe Reyda, Bemus Point Central School superintendent, that voters won’t approve purchases of electric buses. Bemus Point voters recently turned down a bond anticipation note that would have allowed the district to move forward with an EPA rebate award for the purchase of two electric buses as well as charging infrastructure for the district bus garage. The proposition was defeated 143-132.

That proposition would have decreased the cost for Bemus Point to purchase its first two electric buses, and Reyda wrote in a letter to Borrello that he is worried electric buses will be defeated if they are up for a public vote in May when district residents vote on the school’s budget.

“Based on the feedback shared with us from the Board of Election poll workers and other school employees, the majority of community members who voted were simply not in favor of electric school buses,” Reyda wrote in his letter to Borrello. “It didn’t matter how much the district received in financial incentives, they did not support the political process that put this mandate into place. They firmly believed that a ‘no’ vote would stop the process to transition to electric school buses.”

Borrello’s bill, if approved, would give superintendents like Reyda a little breathing room.

Borrello has previously called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to delay the state’s 2027 deadline for school districts to begin purchasing electric school buses. He also drafted legislation (S.8467) in the state Senate to eliminate the zero-emission bus mandate as well as authorize the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of converting school buses to zero-emission vehicles. Borrello specifically wants NYSERDA to analyze the conversion for rural, suburban and urban school districts.

He elaborated on that need while stating his support for S.9941.

“The cost to New York school taxpayers of converting to all-electric school buses is estimated to exceed $8.9 billion just for the school buses, and several billion more for the required electrical upgrades,” Borrello wrote in his legislative justification for S.9941. “Under a state-negotiated price schedule that school districts are encouraged to use, electric school buses will cost taxpayers at least $189,000 more per bus for the smallest bus and at least $255,000 more per bus for larger buses compared to conventional buses, according to the Empire Center.”