Arctic blast exposes alleged $8B electric bus boondoggle as Vermont buses sit useless | 5 Feb 2026 | The Arctic blast that snowed in much of the East exposed not only the need for road salt but the possibility that untold taxpayer dollars were wasted on risky electric bus subsidy programs under the Biden administration, according to critics of those initiatives. That’s the claim from Power the Future, a top energy advocacy and watchdog group that also compared the disbursement of more than $8 billion over at least two related federal subsidy programs to oversight failures by the Minnesota government involving its Medicaid and childcare entitlement crises recently exposed. E-buses have been purchased by transit agencies in part through a “Low-No” emissions grant program mainly through the Federal Transit Administration that received a $1.6 billion infusion during the Biden years. …PTF highlighted a 2024 EPA Inspector General audit that found the agency failed to meaningfully track the deployment of electric school buses under a 2022 rebate program through which $836 million was handed out by federal officials.