The Trump administration is citing a current hearth in SEPTA’s decommissioned electrical bus fleet because it bashes the federal authorities’s previous investments in environmentally pleasant applied sciences.
The blaze, on June 5, began from the battery in a Proterra electrical bus parked in a SEPTA lot in North Philadelphia, burning not less than 16 buses and inflicting a short spike in air pollutant ranges. The same battery hearth occurred in one other Proterra bus in November 2022.
The Federal Transit Administration on Wednesday requested SEPTA to supply data on its storage strategies for decommissioned electrical buses and lithium-ion batteries, whereas apparently alluding to the Inexperienced New Deal, a set of insurance policies to handle local weather change that was proposed however by no means enacted.
“This isn’t the primary inexperienced deal initiative to backfire with critical long-term ramifications, bringing into query how secure and environment friendly these investments are,” stated Marcus Molinaro, who was confirmed as FTA Administrator this week. “We are going to examine what steps might be taken to keep away from the general public security threat brought on by these autos and work to make sure correct security protocols are in place.”
Whereas the FTA often asks native transit businesses to supply data on questions of safety and different issues, Molinaro’s letter goes past the sometimes dry bureaucratic language of such requests.
“These incidents solid a disquieting highlight throughout the nation, elevating questions in state capitals and municipal committees alike: How safe are these Proterra property as soon as retired, and who holds proactive accountability when a ‘inexperienced’ initiative turns into a public security hazard?” he wrote to SEPTA.
“Likewise, FTA expects clear and well-documented proof that choices are being made nationwide to mitigate any of those dangers. With out this, public assist for the clean-energy transit initiatives, which have been fostered underneath current administrations, might be jeopardized,” he stated.
The federal company stated the request is a part of “its routine oversight obligations to evaluate broader nationwide security dangers related to growing older electrical car fleets.” Along with the data on storage protocols, the letter asks SEPTA to elucidate what it has realized about extra security procedures that may lower the chance of fires.
“SEPTA has been in common communication with the FTA relating to the Proterra bus hearth,” a spokesperson for the transit authority stated. “We’re reviewing the requested data and can reply to the FTA previous to the August twentieth deadline.”
Buses failed rapidly
SEPTA acquired 25 Proterra battery-electric buses in 2019, throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period. They value $24 million, together with $2.6 million offered by the FTA to assist cowl the upper worth in comparison with hybrid buses.
Funding for the purchases was approved by a federal transportation invoice signed by President Obama in 2015 and a price range invoice signed by Trump in 2018. The Inexperienced New Deal, a set of vitality and financial insurance policies championed by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, was subsequently proposed in 2019 however didn’t cross.
The Proterra buses had been used on two South Philly bus routes, however they rapidly developed issues and had been taken out of service in February 2020, after lower than a yr of use.
With heavy batteries to increase their vary and light-weight car frames to cut back energy use, they developed cracks all through the car our bodies, PlanPhilly reported in 2021.
Across the similar time, Proterra buses had been additionally taken out of service in Minnesota, Indiana, New Mexico and different locations because of vary points and different issues.
Whereas it haggled with Proterra over repairing the buses, SEPTA saved them at its Southern Bus Depot. A battery energy pack in one of many buses ignited in November 2022, beginning a hearth that despatched smoke billowing from a storage and broken the bus, the Inquirer reported.
As of earlier this yr, SEPTA was storing 15 Proterra buses and 25 different outdated buses at its Midvale Depot in North Philly, apparently with plans to promote them for scrap. In June, a battery in one of many Proterras began burning, resulting in a bigger hearth that despatched up a thick plume of black smoke and destroyed 16 buses, in response to the FTA letter.
“We now have to get them off of our property, away from the potential the place we might have an incident like this,” SEPTA Common Supervisor Scott Sauer stated on the time. “That would have been far worse. We don’t wish to lose a complete facility and, extra importantly, we don’t wish to harm anybody. So, we wish to get these autos off-site.”
Whereas quite a few different cities reported issues with Proterra buses, Philadelphia is outwardly the one one which has skilled battery fires. Colorado-based Proterra declared chapter in 2023 and its transit bus division was bought by Phoenix Motorcars, a California firm.
SEPTA, in the meantime, has continued to obtain FTA funding to subsidize a deliberate transition to zero-emission autos. Final yr, it acquired 10 buses with hydrogen gas cells that generate electrical energy and has plans to ultimately purchase 10 battery electrical buses, Grid journal reported.