Political turmoil around electric vehicles has complicated the transition away from internal combustion engines before the University of Connecticut Storrs campus plans to unveil its new electric buses this Earth Day.
Stanley Nolan, the interim associate vice president of facilities operations, confirmed in an interview last Friday that developing changes in electric vehicle programs won’t affect the buses release date.
“That [electric bus debut] is still as planned, but our current assessment of getting those vehicles from the manufacturer is running a couple weeks behind,” Nolan said. Initially the plan to start running them was in late January, but that was pushed to April to finalize details like custom UConn branding.
The delay coincided well with an Earth Day release, but the timing is subject to change and based on ideal circumstances according to Nolan.
The buses were a joint venture between the Connecticut Department of Transportation and Windham Regional Transit District. The partnership was coordinated after UConn needed additional expertise to spend a $1.3 million dollar grant for two electric buses and charging infrastructure in late 2018 according to UConn Today.
The Trump administration’s return to office after the five years it took to produce the zero emission buses is complicating things now. His second term has not restrained from targeting electrification. An internal email sent by the General Service Administration last month obtained by media outlets shows the efforts taken against electric vehicles.
“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA-owned charging stations are not mission critical,” said the email the Colorado Public Radio first reported.
The grant to fund these buses and their chargers aren’t unfazed by these policy changes, even if the debut goes smoothly. Ned Lamont did not expand these grants yet according to Nolan, and the current political environment could make that prospect more unlikely.
“We’ll get our two buses and infrastructure in place, but getting the next buses three, four and five will take additional funding,” Nolan said.
The new administration has already moved to stop the funding of new EV infrastructure under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program according to The Spokesman Review. The on-and-off funding of electrification efforts is parallel between UConn and the federal government.
The recent GSA email is what moves the current actions beyond restricting funds and into the dismantling of EV chargers. Once the current contracts that keep EV chargers operating end, service will be discontinued and “turned off at the beaker,” according to The Verge.
Neither personal cars nor those owned by the government will be able to charge at GSA owned charging ports after the contracts cease. As a result, the government will have to get rid of the EVs bought under the Biden Administration, but where those EVs go is still uncertain according to The Verge.
The impacts of clearing out the EV fleet won’t affect many Connecticut vehicles. According to CT Mirror, only 43 EVs are a part of the state fleet. By contrast, the 2022 Senate Bill 4 proposed 1,200 state owned vehicles to be EVs by 2026.
GSA owned electric chargers are similarly insubstantial in the state. The now defunct interactive map of federally owned chargers shows that only eight ports in Connecticut are at risk of shutting down after GSA’s email. Those are found in Hartford’s William R. Cotter Federal Building.
Even though those numbers don’t reflect well on EV adoption, Nolan said that electrifying UConn’s fleet came with some difficulties the state of Connecticut might be experiencing.
“It’s the unintended consequences you have to clear,” he said, referring to unique problems of EVs like the impact of heavier cars on the roadways. “Sometimes it can feel slow to adopt tech, but it’s being conscious to look at those studies [regarding efficiency and practicality of EVs] and see if it helps.”
Nolan’s view over these investments reflected EVs positive impact on air quality. “Sometimes you have to pay a little more to do the right thing,” he said.
The GSA’s label of EVs as “not mission critical” mimics the argument that EVs aren’t productive enough for governmental use. For UConn’s electric buses, the planning required for the project detracts from an early implementation that might seem more productive according to Nolan.
Comparing UConn’s electrification experience to the state of Connecticut depicts where the current pitfalls of EV implementation lie and how contrasting federal directions influence the transportation sector. In the future, more UConn students will be exposed to how these efforts are going because the electric bus plans to run on routes with the highest ridership, according to Nolan.