Lakeland diesel bus decision puts students and environment at risk

Dear Editor,

The recent decision by Lakeland Superintendent Dr. Karen Gagliardi to invest in a large number of diesel buses and assorted gas-driven vehicles, seemingly a pre-emption to the NYS Electric Bus mandate coming in 2027, is a continuing affront to Yorktown's children.

Most egregiously, our kids will be exposed daily to noxious diesel fumes while boarding or disembarking from environmentally-unfriendly internal combustion engine buses for another 10 years. Secondly, the opportunity for those same kids to have a learning experience, and appreciate a direct ecological connection with our wondrous sun, which, in effect, might "fuel" their daily transport, will be lost.

I refer to the sun as "fuel" because, beyond electric buses, the solarization of Lakeland's schools (flat roofs, parking lots) should be a no-brainer. Other nearby school districts, like Ossining, are seeing a significant influx of private funding for their districts by leasing their property to solar developers. This school property solarization in the Lakeland District could, in fact, provide a significant, if not total, portion of the buses' daily energy needs. Lakeland, however, by not solarizing, and because of its decision to go diesel, will pay, per current price levels, about $480,000 more per year to fuel their proposed fleet of diesel vehicles, as compared to a conventional recharging system for electric buses. And the switchover savings would double to over $1 million annually should Lakeland, at no cost, solarize its properties, including chargers, while employing those same EV buses in the summer months as energy storage, realizing even more peak energy revenues on the open market.

Given the current disruption of fossil fuel energy production on the world stage and the elevated cost of diesel, we ought to revisit the decision by the Lakeland School District, which, ultimately, furthers the big oil stranglehold on all of Yorktown's residents.

-William Stoiber, Yorktown