School District Turns to Diesel After Attempt to Convert Bus Fleet to Electric Proves Disastrous – IOTW Report

School District Turns to Diesel After Attempt to Convert Bus Fleet to Electric Proves Disastrous

GP:

Affluent liberals will do nearly anything to parade their own perceived moral virtue, including fleecing their neighbors at gunpoint.

In the end, however, the only thing on parade is tragicomic liberalism.

On July 25, Megan Davey Limarzi, Inspector General of Montgomery County, Maryland, issued a blistering memorandum regarding her office’s (OIG) investigation into Montgomery County Public Schools’ catastrophic management of an electric bus contract, which has cost taxpayers millions and forced MCPS to rely on diesel buses.

The sad story began with the usual virtue signaling.

“On February 23, 2021, as part of its commitment to sustainability, MCPS announced it was replacing 326 diesel school buses with electric school buses,” Limarzi wrote.

That ambitious purchase came at a cost of $168,684,990. more

24 Comments on School District Turns to Diesel After Attempt to Convert Bus Fleet to Electric Proves Disastrous

  1. On the bright side, these electric busses are helping provide employment for thousands of third world children who can earn up to $1 per day mining minerals necessary for the EV batteries.

    31
  2. The People’s Republic of Libtardia!
    I grew up there. I left 40 years ago. The libtards run rampant.
    It would be a total shithole if it wasn’t for your Federal tax dollars and increasing national debt keeping the grift going.

    9
  3. Liberalism: “When Other People’s money is no object”
    What do the have to show for hundreds of millions dollars thown to the four winds?
    326 Time Bombs sitting around waiting to ignite… or are they on the hook to pay even more money to dissassemble and responsibly handle these bombs… batteries.

    9
  4. “the 3rd-wealthiest county in Maryland”
    It used to be THE wealthiest.
    What happened?
    Libtardism has even overwhelmed the massive grift that flows in from DC.
    The influx of illegals and others slopping up the welfare in Silver Spring, Gaithersburg and Germantown has overwhelmed the taxes provided by all the “McMansionaires” in Bethesda and Potomac who suck on the teats of DC.

    5
  5. The batteries in an electric vehicle are exactly analogous to the fuel tank in an internal combustion engine vehicle. After a little digging around, I found that a medium large 50-passenger electric school bus weighs in the neighborhood of 10,000 lbs. more than a similar sized IC bus.

    That’s like hauling around a five ton gas tank everywhere you go regardless of how much gas or diesel is in it. The technical term describing this practice is “really, really stupid”.

    13
  6. ^^^ LOL! …except it’s not really sustainable if that word means anything at all what it sounds like. The minerals to make the batteries aren’t renewable, and the land to dispose of the dead batteries becomes dead, too, from the toxic and non-recyclable materials.

    7
  7. Rough EV numbers here, but –
    100kW battery – 2000lbs, gets you approx 300miles

    300Mi with 64Lbs of gasoline 8.8gal @ 34Mpg

    31:1 ratio. Most of the electric HP is used to transport the fuel.

    5
  8. @Harry — How much extra weight do you need to house and transport that battery and safeguard it from the ordinary stresses of operating a motor vehicle over public roadways with potholes, speed bumps, and spandex-wearing bicycle gangs to roll over?

    5
  9. of course this is part of it too.
    Heavier, more robust chassis
    heavy duty suspension
    Heavy duty tires
    Heavy duty brakes
    along with a shorter interval for tire an brake replacement… not a good recipe at all!

    5
  10. ^^^ Aaaaaaaannd of course the Diesel-fired, Trans-Siberian Huskys wearing plaid flannel lumberjack shirts with crewcut purple hair on one side of the head and can’t stop yammering about its vagina needing to monologue!

    2
  11. “I found that a medium large 50-passenger electric school bus weighs in the neighborhood of 10,000 lbs. more than a similar sized IC bus.”

    I see nothing but electric Amazon delivery trucks in my neck of the woods. Could explain all of the potholes and repaving projects around here. People, you’d better not let them drive up your driveways, either.

    1
  12. Toby Miles
    SATURDAY, 3 AUGUST 2024, 8:31 AT 8:31 AM
    “and one day, one of those electric school buses, loaded with children, will erupt into a gigantic chemical reaction and fire.”

    …On May 14, 1988, a school bus converted for church use was struck by a wrong way drunk driver on I-71 in Carrolton, KY. Most of the 27 killed probably survived the initial impact, but the collision caused a fire that blocked the front exit while design features obstructed the rear, rendering them unable to escape before being overcome by smoke and flames.

    https://youtu.be/8U6FpR-rG7A?si=CvdXJIov1FYWQxdA

    …busses were redesigned, fuel tanks were moved, and bus safety was improved by costly lessons learned.

    Until now.

    …Now, there is a very large, very heavy, very high voltage bomb located in the center of the bus behind the driver that has characteristics of outgassing, flamethrowing, burning very hot, and being very difficult to extinguish with the added benefit that it does not need an impact to experience a thermal runaway.

    It could go something like this;

    https://youtu.be/I1Ez54n27Gw?si=f7qWM-d4JHnfZuH5

    …all life is risk, of course, but risk must be weighed against reward.

    Elrctric busses are expensive, unreliable, and difficult to manage as compared with their diesel counterparts, and offer a novel list of dangers that could kill passengers quickly or take out an entire bus livery, all without warning and sometimes without reason.

    The game simply isnt worth the candle even for a wealthy district.

    How much less so, then, for an impoverised one…

    3
  13. Can you imagine the bus being filled with children?
    Unless they could all escape in less than 1 second, they would all be burned up. It’ really too bad that these morons pushing electric were not on the bus

    4
  14. …if anyone wants detailed information directly from the OEM on where batteries are in ALL the electric vehicles, chargers, and storage units and the complex problems and risks they present, without ANY politics, here’s a link to a FREE responder’s guide that can tell you from a firefighter’s perspective exactly how challenging these vehicles can be when things go wrong…

    First Responder’s EV Rescue App Emergency Response Guides for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles and Charging Stations

    https://autorescueapp.com

    …good stuff to know if you’re an EV owner too.

    The life you save may be your own.

    3
  15. I have a friend who is a flaming leftist (school teacher). She bought a hybrid and got rid of it within just a few months. If I were a mean person, I would have chided her for her “killing the planet” new car … not an electric anything! LOL

    3
  16. Same thing happened to municipalities that bought Proterra buses. Cities spent millions, usually with grants from the federal govt, and the buses were off the road after a couple of years. One of the big problems was cracked frames from the weight of the batteries, also the non-availability of spare parts.

    2
  17. maybe they could put unpopped popcorn in the panels of the busses. Then, when the busses burn up, the people that are standing around, watching it burn because they won’t be able to put out the fire, will have something to eat as they enjoy the spectacle.
    unquenchable

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