Electric school buses and winter limits: What physics has to say

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

So, about those electric school busses…

It’s been so mild here in Colorado, I wonder if this has been noticed, but I saw the NY Post article below and thought I’d share.

It details some parental complaints out of New York about the mandated electric busses. Quoting the lede:

“Parents in Western New York are raising alarms over cold rides and breakdowns after officials mandated that all school bus purchases must be electric by 2027.”

The problem’s not hard to figure out. It’s so fundamental that it goes all the way down to energy conservation (and something I’ve touched on more than once in the past — see “Related” below).

For an internal combustion engine, the heat in the compartment is either waste heat from the engine, or (as might be in the case of a school bus’ aft heaters) electric which runs off a system replenished by the engine.

For an electric bus, the heater must be electric and it must compete with the propulsion needs for the same energy in the battery.

What was funny to me about this particular article (and I can’t help but wonder if local Colorado districts would say similar) is how the school claims up and down that the range of the busses, even with heat running is more than enough. The school district, you understand, makes sure of that.

So that leaves a reader like myself wondering if someone’s lying. Are the kids lying? Is the school? Is it that the busses do have heat but it’s meager and undersized?

There are two lessons to take from this and they apply just as well in Colorado as they do in New York.

The first is that there is no choice without consequence. Keeping internal combustion engine buses or switching to electric does not remove problems, it is rather a case of which problems you’d rather have.

The second is that you cannot out wish physics. Whether you truly believe something in your heart or not, physical reality has certain laws which are enforced regardless of your desires.

https://nypost.com/2025/12/22/business/new-york-parents-say-kids-freeze-on-mandated-electric-school-buses-during-brutal-winter-weather/

Related:

An oldie, but still accurate. A quick look at electric school busses I did after reading about Aurora, CO’s foray into the electric school bus market.

https://completecolorado.com/2022/08/26/gaines-a-reality-check-on-electric-school-buses/

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Another year, more legislation to whittle away at TABOR

I cannot find the citation from last legislative session, so you’ll have to take my word that SB26-042 (linked first below) is not the first of its kind.

There are numerous things that TABOR does, but the one relevant for this post is how TABOR puts a cap on how much revenue our state can collect. Politicians under the gold dome chafe at this, none more so than progressives who see government spending as the remedy for all life’s ills (see the bill sponsors for SB26-042 for a gallery of the 4 dyed in the wool believers sponsoring this legislation).

As with earlier efforts, one of the quiet ways to get around TABOR’s revenue cap depends on changing the classification of what kind of revenue fits under TABOR’s umbrella. Clever workaround if you stop and think about it: rather than trying to change TABOR or convince people to let you collect/keep more of their money, one only needs to define away the problem.

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT THE COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.