The House report claims that the Biden-Harris administration's electric school bus program is benefiting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with taxpayer funds.

The Biden-Harris administration's billion-dollar clean bus project is being criticized by lawmakers in a new report, which accuses the initiative of promoting reliance on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and details the taxpayer-funded cost of the energy initiative.

In 2021, the Biden administration approved the Clean School Bus Program, allocating $5 billion to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to encourage the replacement of school buses with eco-friendly alternatives.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations released a 51-page report on the electric school bus program, which was reviewed by Planet Chronicle Digital, and found that the push for electric buses over "cheaper" low-emissions alternatives was problematic, with "vulnerabilities for waste, fraud, and abuse riddling this program."

"The report stated that costly subsidies for ESBs are a poor use of federal taxpayer money, especially when school budgets are under strain. The report added that ESBs can only compete with diesel buses and low emission buses in the market due to the existence of massive taxpayer-funded subsidies."

The EPA funding structure allegedly encouraged districts to select electric school buses.

According to the committee's findings, the average diesel school bus costs $100,000, while the average electric school bus in the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebate Program costs $381,190.

Electric bus proponents informed lawmakers that the initiative would result in lower operating expenses compared to diesel buses. However, the committee contended in their report that the savings do not justify the significant initial costs.

The committee pointed out a "serious security risk" due to the dependence on China for mineral extraction.

"The report states that ESB batteries are dependent on opaque supply chains with national security risks and human rights concerns, which benefit adversarial regimes such as the CCP, which has a monopoly on certain parts of the supply chain for these products. Furthermore, promoting electric vehicles (EVs) like ESBs means supporting the People’s Republic of China and the CCP, as Morgan Stanley estimates that 90% of the EV battery supply chain relies on China."

According to Paul A. Brinkley, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense, the committee observed that Chinese companies will mine lithium in Afghanistan, which will benefit both China and the Taliban.

The committee discovered that the EPA did not require applicants to provide truthful attestations, did not have verification procedures, and relied on insufficient self-certification to determine compliance with EPA requirements during their investigation of schools that received EPA funds.

The EPA, under the leadership of the Biden-Harris administration, supports a market that heavily depends on a supply chain controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. However, the program lacks safeguards to prevent fraud and encourages schools to use buses they would not typically choose, according to the committee chairs in a statement.

Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, has advocated for replacing older buses with electric vehicles.

""Can you raise your hand if you love a yellow school bus? Many of us went to school on the yellow school bus, right? It’s part of our experience growing up, a memory of the excitement and joy of going to school to be with your favorite teacher, to be with your best friends and to learn. The school bus takes us there," Harris said while speaking at Lumen Field in Seattle in 2022."

The EPA informed Planet Chronicle Digital that the program aims to provide a cleaner future for children by improving air quality on buses, in loading areas, and in the surrounding communities.

The EPA values Congress' ongoing support for the Clean School Bus Program. The agency is dedicated to maintaining oversight and accountability and to ensuring that the program's funds are benefiting communities by improving air quality and mitigating climate change. The EPA collaborates with a range of stakeholders, including the OIG, to continually enhance the program's design, implementation, and monitoring.