Contact: Sasha Tenenbaum, 917-887-0146 or stenenbaum@momscleanairforce.org
WASHINGTON, DC – To highlight the urgent need to transition away from dirty diesel engines and electrify the vehicles on our roads, Moms Clean Air Force has produced a short video, found online here, highlighting the health and climate benefits that come with electric vehicles. The video also features a call to support the original American Jobs Plan with the strongest climate provisions.
The short video, filmed in Livingston, Montana, features clean air advocate and Montana field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force Michelle Uberuaga, with elected leaders, student athletes, school administrators, and more. In the video, participants enthusiastically tour the inside and outside of an all-electric yellow school bus, take short rides, and explore the features of the electric bus. The demonstration event is part of a larger summer tour across the country with stops in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, among other cities.
With wildfires threatening all of the West and temperatures soaring, now is the time for Americans to rally behind the original American Jobs Plan that would make historic investments in fighting climate change, while growing American jobs. Importantly, the plan would invest in clean, electric cars, trucks, and buses that will help protect the health of our families and communities. This is important because transportation accounts for almost a third of all US emissions—the single largest source of climate-harming greenhouse gas pollution in the US. Replacing old school buses with clean, electric buses, and installing the infrastructure needed to support them, will spur manufacturing jobs while reducing children’s exposure to harmful diesel pollution.
To schedule an interview on the promise of all-electric school buses and to learn more about what Congress can do to support this and other pro-climate efforts, please connect with the above-mentioned media contact.
MORE BACKGROUND:
With plans underway to clean up and invest in a once-in-a-generation infrastructure package as part of the American Jobs Plan, Americans—including more than 1 million members of Moms Clean Air Force—support the electrification of our nation’s fleet of iconic yellow school buses as part of this infrastructure package. Electrification of buses, cars, and trucks is critical to solving the climate crisis, given that transportation is the largest source of global-warming pollution in our country. Electrifying our nation’s school bus fleet also eliminates noise pollution in communities around schools and cleans up the air for children, student athletes, and drivers inside school buses, where they can be exposed to harmful pollution from diesel engines at levels 5–10 times higher than outside the bus. Montana youth and bus drivers spend hours on buses traveling across the state for sporting events.