WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) partnered with ZETA member GreenPower Motor Company to showcase several electric buses on Capitol Hill. The showcase included a press event that featured Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Representatives Paul Tonko (D–NY-20) and Nanette Barragán (D-CA-44), GreenPower executives, ZETA Vice President Andres Hoyos, several West Virginia elected officials, and clean school bus advocates.
GreenPower recently announced that it is building a manufacturing plant in South Charleston, West Virginia that will create up to 900 jobs and approximately $500 million in economic impact for the state annually.
“These zero-emission school buses will open up a world of opportunities for [West Virginia],” said West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (R) at a previous GreenPower press conference. “The ripple effects on our state’s economy are going to be off-the-charts.”
A ZETA white paper on medium- and heavy-duty vehicle electrification described why school bus electrification is so vital for public health. Each day, approximately 25 million children spend between one-half to two hours traveling on diesel school buses. Inside buses, children’s higher exposure to diesel fumes—linked to cancer, respiratory, and cognitive impairment—can exceed ambient levels of exposure by twelve times. Electrifying school buses effectively mitigates these health risks. And importantly, fleet operators who switch from diesel to electric can save more than half a million dollars per vehicle over the vehicle’s lifetime.
“GreenPower is proving that electrifying our transportation system can raise all boats,” said Hoyos. “Not only do clean school buses boost public health for our children and cut pollution in our communities, but they’re creating good-paying jobs, too. And not just in the historic heart of American auto-manufacturing, but also in new auto-manufacturing hubs like South Charleston, West Virginia.”
This showcase comes as the U.S. Congress continues to negotiate a clean energy tax package that would provide tax incentives for electric vehicle (EV) consumer purchases, charger deployment, and domestic battery production. Industry experts and EV advocates have urged Congress to pass these provisions to ensure that the United States can win the global clean transportation race and that American workers benefit from this 21st century technological boon.
About ZETA
The Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) is a federal coalition focused on advocating for 100% EV sales by 2030. ZETA is committed to enacting policies that drive EV adoption, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, secure American global EV manufacturing leadership, drastically improve public health, and significantly reduce carbon pollution.
