CONTACT: Sasha Tenenbaum
Senior Manager, Media and Public Engagement
stenenbaum@momscleanairforce.org
(917) 887-0146
WASHINGTON, DC—In recognition of Earth Day with its 2022 theme “Invest in Our Planet,” Moms Clean Air Force is calling attention to the enormous health and climate benefits in electric school bus investments as part of a broader effort to electrify all the vehicles on our roads.
Clean air advocate Almeta Cooper, who works in Georgia for Moms Clean Air Force to address air pollution that disproportionately harms communities of color, is available to speak to the media about her important advocacy work, the meaning of Earth Day, and why we need to get rolling on electrifying our school buses.
Almeta is a passionate advocate committed to increased funding for electric school buses in her community of Fulton County, Georgia—as well as across the country. In Fulton County, where the air quality gets failing grades year after year, Almeta works with parents seeking solutions and relief from air pollution that impacts children’s health. NBC’s The TODAY Show interviewed Almeta to learn more about electric school bus benefits in a segment that premiered on Tuesday. Go here to watch the segment, which begins at minute 7:00.
In a one-on-one interview Almeta Cooper can discuss:
- The importance of ditching dirty diesel-powered school buses in favor of electric school buses, and what this exciting transition means for our health and our environment.
- How parents can help school districts get ready for the $5 billion in bipartisan infrastructure funding that will soon become available through EPA’s Clean School Bus program.
- What Earth “Day” (or Month) means to parents on the frontlines of fighting for clean air and a stable climate in their communities–and what parents can do to transform climate anxiety into climate action.
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
To interview Almeta Cooper as part of your Earth Day coverage, please contact Sasha Tenenbaum, (917) 887-0146, stenenbaum@momscleanairforce.org.
RESOURCES
- Our blog post “Here’s What You Need to Know about Electric School Buses.”
- Our Electric School Bus section online is found here.
BACKGROUND
Electrifying our nation’s school bus fleet is critical to solving the climate crisis because buses, cars, and trucks are the largest source of global-warming pollution in our country. They also are a major source of air pollution that causes asthma attacks and lung infections and that interferes with normal lung development.
Most of the nation’s 480,000 school buses, transporting 25 million children every school day, run on dirty diesel engines, spewing harmful air pollution in the exact places where children live, learn, and play. Electrifying school buses will help clean up the air for children and drivers along bus routes; at places where buses commonly idle, such as school entrances; and inside school buses.
Electric school buses are ready to roll and in use across the country, and federal investment in electric buses is increasing—in the form of $5 billion over five years for electric and lower-emissions school buses allocated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.