School District Turns to Diesel After Attempt to Convert Bus Fleet to Electric Proves Disastrous
Gateway Pundit | July 31, 2024 | Michael Schwarz

On July 25, Megan Davey Limarzi, Inspector General of Montgomery County, Maryland, issued a blistering memorandum regarding her office’s (OIG) investigation into Montgomery County Public Schools’ catastrophic management of an electric bus contract, which has cost taxpayers millions and forced MCPS to rely on diesel buses.

The sad story began with the usual virtue signaling.

“On February 23, 2021, as part of its commitment to sustainability, MCPS announced it was replacing 326 diesel school buses with electric school buses,” Limarzi wrote.

That ambitious purchase came at a cost of $168,684,990.

…

Alas, Limarzi found that the electric bus contractor “did not deliver any of the buses expected in FY2022 through FY2024 by August 1st as required by the agreement’s delivery schedule.”

Nor will the contractor meet said delivery goal for the 2024-25 school year.

With that in mind, MCPS should have assessed fees, as it would have done under a diesel bus contract. But it did not do so, which cost an additional $1.8 million.

This led Limarzi to conclude that MCPS had utterly fleeced taxpayers.