A five-year delay in the state’s electric school bus mandate would be a reasonable compromise if it is included in the state budget as some Albany insiders say it will be.

The electric bus mandate was always far too optimistic that technology would be ready quickly. Early adopters of electric buses have found the technology isn’t ready for New York’s winters. And, in a state where Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed relatively flat state aid for many smaller districts, the cost of bonding for electric school buses was going to be more than most districts’ taxpayers were going to be willing to spend for technology that couldn’t yet handle New York winters.

It’s good that legislative Democrats who haven’t wanted to give up on their 2027 goal of schools buying only electric buses have listened to schools who have said the cost and reliability are insurmountable obstacles in 2026.

We hope the electric bus mandate is only the tip of the iceberg, however.

Including a delay in the electric bus mandate shows that Democrats can be swayed by logic. We would hope that means there is similar agreement to delay implementation of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act’s strict deadlines for the state’s power grid to rely 70% on renewable electricity by 2030, 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040, and to achieve an 85% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050.

It’s become obvious that, much like electric school buses, the technology isn’t ready for the state to meet those aggressive timelines. Power prices are skyrocketing and electric grid reliability is decreasing while the state gets closer and closer to arbitrary timelines it can’t meet.

We reported recently that 17 legislative Democrats had filed an amicus curie brief asking an appeals court to make the state stick to its original CLCPA timelines. That brief is a perfect indicator of why the state budget is now more than six weeks late. There are still Democrats who don’t realize the state can’t meet its renewable energy goals because the technology doesn’t exist yet and because New York’s residents can’t afford to foot the bill. Republicans are willing to cross the aisle to vote for bills that don’t eliminate the CLCPA or electric bus mandate but that at least provide breathing room for technology to catch up and, perhaps, become less expensive.

It appears taxpayers are going to get some relief from the electric school bus mandate. We hope that’s a good sign for a delay in the CLCPA, too.