Electric school buses are important trend

Thank you to the Daily Herald for the Jan. 12 article, “Suburban school districts slowly rolling out electric school buses.” We appreciate the attention paid to this important trend and hope more school districts in the Chicago area will take notice of the pioneering efforts of Palatine Township Elementary District 15, River Trails District 26, Naperville Unit District 203 and Huntley Community Unit District 158.

Diesel school buses are bad for our students, our bus drivers and our environment. Research conducted by the National Resources Defense Council has shown that children riding inside a school bus may be exposed to four times the level of diesel exhaust as people riding in a car in front of it, and there is a consistent link between exposure to diesel exhaust and asthma.

Meanwhile, passenger transportation accounts for nearly 20% of the Chicago area’s yearly greenhouse gas emissions, making it a high-priority sector for electrification as we seek to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

We applaud the decisions by our local school districts to invest in student health and environmental sustainability, and hope to see other districts follow suit.

Max Modjeski, Palatine

Eric Bindler, Palatine