Vermont’s electric-powered buses prove unreliable for transportation this winter

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Electric buses are proving unreliable this winter for Vermont's Green Mountain Transit, as it needs to be over 41 degrees for the buses to charge, but due to a battery recall the buses are a fire hazard and can't be charged in a garage.

Spokesman for energy workers advocacy group Power the Future Larry Behrens told The Center Square: “Taxpayers were sold an $8 million ‘solution’ that can’t operate in cold weather when the home for these buses is in New England.”

“We’re beyond the point where this looks like incompetence and starts to smell like fraud,” Behrens said.

“When government rushes money out the door to satisfy green mandates, basic questions about performance, safety, and value for taxpayers are always pushed aside,” Behrens said. “Americans deserve to know who approved this purchase and why the red flags were ignored.”

General manager at Green Mountain Transit (GMT) Clayton Clark told The Center Square that “the federal government provides public transit agencies with new buses through a competitive grant application process, and success is not a given.”

“From 2020-2024, the [Federal Transit Administration’s] priority for grants had been low or no emission vehicles, with grant requests for diesel buses often not awarded,” Clark said.

“This was part of a concerted effort of the previous administration to accelerate public transits' migration to replace diesel buses,” Clark said.

“To be competitive for a grant, GMT…saw electric battery buses as the pathway to get the most new buses,” Clark said. “Green Mountain Transit's priority is new buses, regardless of the type.”

“In September 2025 we ordered 7 additional buses with a 2027 delivery date (but will be delivered with different batteries [than the recalled ones]), and 7 more slated for delivery in 2028,” Clark said. “This is the primary source of new buses for the next three years, as we have only 3 diesel buses anticipated.”

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