HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 968        FILED ON: 1/17/2023

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3769

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

David Henry Argosky LeBoeuf

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to promote a just transition to electric school buses.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 968        FILED ON: 1/17/2023

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3769

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)

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An Act to promote a just transition to electric school buses.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 71 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 37D the following section:-

Section 37D ½. The school committee in each city and town and each regional school district shall ensure that the school committee shall operate or contract for the operation of electric vehicles, as defined in section 1 of chapter 90, for the transportation of students with a priority for operating such vehicles on routes serving environmental justice populations as defined in section 62 of chapter 30. The school committees shall conduct robust community outreach and engagement with residents of environmental justice populations, municipal officials in cities and towns that have environmental justice populations and with transportation and environmental justice advocates. The school committees shall implement student transportation vehicle electrification no later than December 31, 2033 and meet the targets set forth in this section.

The board of elementary and secondary education, in consultation with the commissioner of environmental protection, shall require that the transportation of students shall be conducted by electric vehicles according to the following deadlines: (i) 50 per cent by 2027; (ii) 75 per cent by 2030; and (iii) 100 per cent by December 31, 2033.

The commissioner of environmental protection and the board of elementary and secondary education shall, during the course of transition, record and publish anonymized data from a diverse sample of students and school districts both before and after their transition to electric vehicles, noting metrics of students’ learning and behavior; students’ street, census tract, and bus route; whether their transportation to school was in a personal or school vehicle; whether and when that vehicle was electric or another type of vehicle; and air pollution metrics at home, in the vehicle and at school.

The commissioner of public health shall support research and publish annual reports on the potential environmental health impacts of air pollution from school districts’ existing non-electric vehicles on school bus drivers, students traveling to and from school on non-electric vehicles, and students residing on streets traveled by existing non-electric vehicles.

The school committees shall report annually beginning June 30, 2024 to the board of elementary and secondary education and the commissioner of environmental protection the progress of electrifying the vehicles used for the transportation of students. As part of the public reports, school committees shall explain the cost analysis of all procurements of fossil fuel infrastructure and the reasons for procuring internal combustion engines and fossil fuel infrastructure in lieu of electric vehicles and zero-emission infrastructure.

SECTION 2. Section 1 of Chapter 90 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2020 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the definition of “Electric bicycles” the following definition:-

“Electric vehicles”, vehicles that rely solely on electric motors for propulsion and includes non-combustion vehicles.

SECTION 3. The board of elementary and secondary education shall establish a central planning and procurement office by August 30, 2024. The central planning and procurement office shall be tasked

with technical, planning, grant writing, procurement and worker retraining support for implementation of the electric vehicle bus rollout plans. The board’s central planning and procurement office shall create an electric vehicle rollout plan for the school district in each city and town and each regional school district by June 30, 2025.

Any employees who become unemployed as a result of the transition to electric vehicles from implementation of this act will be provided with free retraining options and hiring assistance to transition to another role. The employers of any labor required to design, build and maintain infrastructure related to electric vehicles will pay at least the prevailing wage, at a minimum remain neutral to unionization efforts, and be subject to project labor agreements, which shall not include restrictions on union activity or the free exercise of other collective action by workers.

The board of elementary and secondary education, in consultation with the commissioner of environmental protection, shall identify sources of funding to support the implementation of the electric vehicle rollout plans and may pursue federal funding opportunities to support electric vehicle penetration throughout the commonwealth in accordance with the requirements of chapter 21N.