With the Inflation Reduction Act supporting the beginning of a transition to clean school buses, elected officials in Florida are calling for quicker action.

The Miami-Dade County Public School System has ordered 10 electric school buses, with delivery expected next summer.

While it's well known that electric school buses will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, a less talked about issue is kids' and bus drivers' long-term exposure to diesel exhaust.

The National Institutes of Health says exposure to diesel exhaust particulates is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.

Research indicates the amount of fine particulates inside a school bus can be 5 to 10 times higher than the surrounding atmosphere, and it's worse when buses sit still at idle.

Former Mayor of Pinecrest and former Florida state Rep. Cindy Lerner - who is currently on the national leadership council of Elected Officials to Protect America - said the transition to electric buses has advocates excited.

"We are really very excited about it," said Lerner, "not only because of the reduction in the greenhouse-gas emissions, but the significant health hazards to lung development - and even to brain development - in children by sitting on the school bus twice a day 5 days a week."

A half-hour ride to and from school each day amounts to 180 hours over a school year.

Earlier this year, the Miami-Dade School District adopted a resolution to move the district to 100 percent clean energy by 2030. The funding for this first purchase of electric buses came out of Florida's portion of the Volkswagen diesel settlement.

While the district will again apply to the Environmental Protection Agency Clean School Bus award program next year, advocates are calling for state-level action.

Lerner pointed to states such as Connecticut that passed its own Clean Air Act this year and will transition all state vehicles to electric by 2030. She said advocates in Florida must appeal to the state to do more.

"That'll be our project over the next couple years," said Lerner, "to go forward to the state and ask them to take that kind of action to set standards and to invest in clean transportation for school children throughout the state of Florida."

The Miami-Dade County Public School system is 4th largest in the nation, and with that comes a large fleet of buses. The district's buses currently log 13 million miles per year.

Luisa Santos represents District 9 on the Miami Dade School Board and said electrifying a fleet of this size will have a large impact on air quality.

"Our goal, really, is that we are working to electrify all 999 buses in our fleet," said Santos. "That is a huge number, and so if we can get it right, our impact will be tremendous."

Connecticut lawmakers are reluctant to approve new emission standards that would require 90% cleaner emissions from internal-combustion engines and require carmakers to deliver 100% zero emission vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, by 2035.

However, clean-air advocates say misinformation about how these standards would impact residents is making it difficult to get them passed.

Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, said most people think it's a ban on gas-powered cars -- when it's not.

"You will be able to drive a gas-powered vehicle for the rest of your life and never have to think about an EV if you don't want to," she said. "What this requires is that any new vehicle, in 2035, and this would all be phased in, all new vehicles must be clean emissions."

Brown believes broadening education about these standards could help turn the tide of public perception. Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection found that 67% of nitrogen-oxide emissions come from transportation.

Brown is convinced the state needs new emissions standards for cars, large trucks and public buses.

Lawmakers are trying to find a compromise to implementing clean-emissions rules, but neighboring states -- such as New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts -- already have them in place.

Tom Swan, executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, said advocates may have to take a non-traditional route in Connecticut.

"The Legislature can revisit the rights if we find that they're not possible to be implemented further down the line," said Swan. "It's important for us to be moving forward at this time and continue on this trajectory."

Attendees of this week's COP-28 talks in the United Arab Emirates were hesitant to establish a firm vehicle-emission standard.

COP-28 president Sultan Al-Jeber said there's no science to support phasing out fossil fuels. Many see this as yet another step in the fossil-fuel industry's climate-change misinformation strategy.


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From prolonged droughts to intense rain and snowstorms, the Midwest is not immune to climate change threats.

An emerging resource aims to place more focus on how these threats intersect with an aging population. Academic leaders have established the Aging and Climate Change Clearinghouse. Officials said the goal is to spur and catalog research, intervention work and policy efforts around the U.S. to address climate change vulnerability among those 65 and older.

Karl Pillemer, professor of gerontology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and professor of psychology at Cornell University, directs the project and said if extreme heat events become more common in this part of the country, older residents are unlikely to be equipped to protect themselves.

"For example, a number of older people in areas prone to heat events don't have air conditioning because they've never needed it," Pillemer pointed out.

He suggested state-level climate adaptation plans need more specific details on protecting older residents. Meanwhile, project officials stressed they do not want to portray senior citizens as victims, and getting involved is not just meant for younger generations. The clearinghouse encourages older individuals to raise awareness and serve as volunteers in making their communities climate resilient.

Pillemer added the nation also needs to set aside political ideology in confronting climate topics.

"Even if you have your doubts about what causes climate change, almost everybody can agree that we're experiencing changing weather patterns that are going to affect vulnerable people," Pillemer emphasized.

Beyond preparation gaps, he noted chronic health issues -- made worse by air pollution -- and health care access barriers are ways in which the population will especially feel the climate change burden. The project cites data showing by 2030, more than one in five Americans will be at least 65 years old, underscoring vulnerability concerns.


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A new report shows Maine is exceeding the home-heating goals set forth in its ambitious four-year climate plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The state surpassed its goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps earlier this summer, and Gov. Janet Mills quickly set a new target of 275,000 by 2027.

Michael Stoddard, Efficiency Maine Trust executive director, said new refrigeration cycle technology is helping both the climate and consumers, who've struggled with volatile prices in home heating oil.

"The advent of highly effective at very cold temperatures and very cost-effective air-sourced heat pumps has been a huge breakthrough for us," Stoddard explained.

Close to 30% of Maine's greenhouse-gas emissions come from heating homes and businesses. The state has set a goal of going carbon neutral by 2045 and is aggressively promoting heat pumps to help reach that target.

The cold and rural state of Maine is the nation's most dependent on home heating oil, with nearly 60% of households reliant on the fuel for warmth, compared with just 4% nationally.

Stoddard said often, households will install a heat pump and continue to use heating oil as a backup source, but added a whole-home heat-pump system can save consumers roughly $1,000 a year.

"So, you can imagine what the impacts of that are, expanded across all the homes that we touch and that we will touch over the next decade," he said.

Stoddard noted many antiquated school buildings in rural Maine could also reap financial rewards by transitioning their heating systems, and said federal and state programs offering financial incentives, especially rebates, are helping drive consumer demand for more efficient heating technologies that also benefit the climate.


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