It's at least a little political. After all politics is really mostly about allocating resources. All of your issues here are solvable with money. Most cities have the money to make that change, but due to politics choose not to.
I guarantee you when we really start feeling the effects of climate change and the politics on this turns, cities will be adopting electric bus fleets seemingly overnight.
Oh I absolutely agree. A lot of the foot dragging arguments I'm making are the same ones people made when busses started moving to compressed and liquid natural gas, and for what its worth I totally endorse getting at least started on electric fleets. "Ignore the problem" is not a good solution at all.
FYI, mining trucks and equipment are almost all electric. So are locomotives...even if that power comes from a diesel generator. One of the largest trucks in the WORLD is electric
I guarantee you when we really start feeling the effects of climate change and the politics on this turns, cities will be adopting electric bus fleets seemingly overnight.