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As if Sen. Chuck Schumer wasn’t busy enough convincing Sen. Joe Manchin to vote for the Democrats’ latest climate and tax plan, the New York Senator also found time to help secure electric buses for his hometown.
The MTA will receive $116 million from the United States Department of Transportation to buy 230 new battery electric buses by 2025, the Senator’s office announced. Procurement will start this fall.
On Twitter, Schumer called it “big for NYC,” adding that “this will drive the MTA to a clean-energy future and reduce dirty diesel carbon emissions in NYC neighborhoods.”
This is big for NYC:
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 10, 2022
The MTA will receive $116 million from @USDOT for clean, electric buses from our infrastructure law.
This will drive the MTA to a clean-energy future and reduce dirty diesel carbon emissions in NYC neighborhoods.https://t.co/grBitBK4Fo
As of this spring, the MTA owned just 15 electric buses, The City reported, so this would significantly change the fleet. Plus, it would chip away at the agency’s plan to move toward a fleet of 5,800 zero-emissions buses by 2040.
The new buses are expected to replace vehicles at the following bus depots: Gun Hill and Kingsbridge in the Bronx, East New York and Grand Ave in Brooklyn, Queens Village in Queens, and Mother Clara Hale in Uptown Manhattan.
Funding for the program is coming through the Senator’s “Green New Wheel” initiative, part of the bipartisan infrastructure law signed last fall.
The New York League of Conservation Voters, a statewide environmental organization, lauded the news, saying “we’re excited for more electric buses after our work supporting this grant.”
“While the wheels on the MTA buses go round-and-round, our effort to reduce carbon emissions and clean the air across NYC also has to keep going. This win brings us all one stop closer to that goal,” Schumer said in a statement to Time Out. “Combined with all the other things we are doing, and the recent passage of the climate bill in the Senate, which we hope will soon be signed by President Biden, we are—like these buses—on a roll.”