Bring electric school buses to Washington

What's At Stake

Update 3/1/24: Thanks in part to nearly 1,000 Earthjustice supporters and clean air champions in the Washington Legislature, the bill to accelerate our transition to electric, zero emissions school buses passed both the House and Senate and is headed to Governor Inslee’s desk.  

We thank Rep. Tana Senn, prime sponsor of the bill, for her steadfast leadership on this effort that we believe will increase student health and social outcomes, while transitioning our school fleets away from fossil fuels to clean energy. 

We still need to finish the job. Join us in urging Governor Inslee to sign the bill into law. 

We are asking for $80 million from the Climate Commitment Act for helping school districts buy electric school buses, but we need the legislature to pass a bill that would set requirements for how the funds are spent and ensure a transition to 100% clean school buses. 

We worked to successfully include an important provision in the bill that will provide the maximum benefit for schoolchildren and communities across the state. 

The policy will prioritize money for school districts where kids are already breathing dirty air and riding older, more polluting buses. Diesel exhaust produces some of the dirtiest, most toxic pollution in existence that fouls the air in our neighborhoods and directly hurts kids riding in diesel buses. Replacing diesel buses with clean, electric buses is a meaningful step toward addressing decades of policy that has intentionally concentrated transportation pollution in low-income communities and communities of color. 

House Bill 1368 is Washington’s chance to lead the nation in the transition to electric school buses. Tell the Governor to sign the bill.

Illustration of youth standing in parking lot in front of a yellow electric school bus. One youth is waving to the bus driver.
Electric school buses would benefit the 25 million school children who ride the bus to school every day in the United States. (Neal Sharp for Earthjustice)

Delivery to Washington Governor Jay Inslee

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