THE COMMONWEALTH HAS established itself as a national leader in addressing climate change by setting an aggressive goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A host of strategies have been adopted and proposed to move us forward in meeting this goal. This is cause for celebration given that leaders in some states refuse to acknowledge climate change and are blocking any attempts to address it.

One such proposal is Senate bill 2218, filed by Sen. Brendan Crighton, calling for 100 percent of new vehicles purchased by the Commonwealth to be electric by 2026 and 100 percent use of zero emissions vehicles by public entities by 2035. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program is offering $5 billion in grants and rebates over five years to schools to electrify their bus fleets. (Five Massachusetts school districts received rebates through this program in 2022.)

Electrifying school buses as an immediate first step should be a no-brainer. They travel a known distance each day and are parked in a central location overnight, easing the logistics of route planning and charging. What’s more, electric buses are quieter and reduce students’ exposure to tailpipe emissions, which has been shown to be a leading cause of asthma.

However, current laws do not make this so easy. The heart of the challenge facing school districts is the requirement under current law that they procure fuel sources separately from vehicles. While that may seem like a minor bureaucratic detail, it runs the risk of greatly complicating districts’ move to cleaner bus transportation, and could lead to violations of procurement regulations and law.

Embedded in the mission of the Office of the Inspector General is the prevention of waste of public resources. I believe that the urgency of the environmental problem of climate change, coupled with the influx of large sums of public funds to address it, creates a situation ripe for waste and abuse of public resources. As the oversight agency that both provides technical assistance to communities for procurements and investigates failures to comply with the law, we in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), are concerned that the process for procuring electric buses and building the associated charging infrastructure is burdensome and complicated.

The laws that govern these processes ensure that the government runs an open and competitive procurement process for the goods and services it purchases and provides everyone a fair shot at securing a government contract. These are bedrock principles that help ensure the public’s confidence in government.

As I see it, there are several paths currently available for school districts to procure electric buses and the necessary charging infrastructure, whether a school opts to own or lease the buses and regardless of whether the funding is from federal, state, or municipal dollars. Yet, each path runs headlong into the current requirement to procure the fuel source separately from the vehicle.

Under the standard state procurement law, school departments (and other public entities) must follow prescribed steps to procure everything from pencils to school buses. Unlike a petroleum-fueled bus, an electric school bus requires a power source that must be built following a separate public construction procurement process. The need for two separate procurements, both of which are necessary to procure an electric school bus and its associated charging infrastructure, makes for a lengthy process with two entirely separate objectives, rules, deadlines, and budgets. This is likely to be a challenging proposition for most districts. It’s like buying a video game without knowing what console you are going to use, except in this case, the video game costs $350,000. It’s useless without the compatible console.

Quasi-public agencies, such as the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, are laudably trying to streamline the process and assist school districts. While this is welcome and much needed given the intricacies of the process, it is important that all the parties are on the same page regarding procurement practices and using a fair and open process. It should be noted that when a school district uses a third party to acquire the buses and construct the electric charging infrastructure, the municipality does not abdicate its responsibility or liability for ensuring that the vendor follows applicable laws.

The Commonwealth’s Operational Services Division offers statewide contracts that can be used to purchase goods and services with state-negotiated pricing and other benefits. Notably, there is only one bus vendor currently on the state list, reflecting the reality of the current lack of market competition in this space. The state contract for building the charging infrastructure caps labor costs at $50,000, which limits it to small projects.

The state Department of Energy Resources (DOER) could define electric buses and the associated charging infrastructure as either energy management or conservation projects, which may allow for a more streamlined procurement process. The DOER is best suited to make this determination and advocate for such a statutory change. Unless or until DOER makes this change, however, this alternative is not available or lawful.

As the Commonwealth’s inspector general, I am concerned that the complexity of electrifying bus fleets will lead school districts to inadvertently violate the law, resulting in reduced competition and higher prices. I certainly do not want to impede progress on this important initiative, but neither do I want to abandon the principles of fair competition and transparency in the expenditure of public funds.

It is time for the administration and the Legislature to address the current reality of separate procurements to enable school districts to adopt electric buses while more easily mitigating the potential waste of public resources. How we meet the moment on electric bus transformation, if done well, can serve as a model for so many of these efforts, including those for state and municipal construction vehicles, trucks, and passenger vehicles.

It would be a mistake to suggest that the obstacles I have identified are merely technical issues and that the end goal of reducing carbon emissions justifies the means. The core principle of the inspector general’s oversight function includes the reality that we can do good things, while doing so fairly, openly, and transparently.

Jeffrey S. Shapiro is the Commonwealth’s inspector general. The Office of the Inspector General is an independent statewide agency tasked with preventing and detecting waste, fraud and abuse in the expenditure of public resources.