SPECIAL REPORT The district spent $790,599 to run over 2 million miles
at a cost of 39 cents a mile, a 27 cents per-mile cost sav- ings with more than a $500,000 in annual fuel savings. The Alternative Fuel Excise Tax Credit for propane
vehicles is 36 cents a gallon for even more cost savings. “The fate of the Alternative Fuel Tax Credit for pro-
pane vehicles is tenuous at best,” Whaley noted. “But the value proposition for propane without any incentives stands impressively on its own.” Clean diesel has also become a more attractive option, especially when using renewable diesel. But incentives for RD only currently exist in California, Oregon, Washing- ton and New Mexico, the only states that have passed the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Still, tougher EPA emissions standards have been a driving factor in diesel being more than 90 percent cleaner today than a decade ago. Those emissions are expected to only get cleaner starting in 2027, when EPA’s Phase III GHG standard is scheduled to go into effect. But at this report, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin signaled the rule and others are under reconsid- eration. If rolled back, diesel school buses could be easier and less expensive to obtain, especially in states that were previously forecasting limited availability. As the industry awaits word on Phase III , Cummins announced last month its much-anticipated B7.2 diesel
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engine on the company’s HELM or fuel-agnostic platform. The emissions reduction to less than 0.035 grams of NOx per horsepower/hour, as required by EPA Phase III rep- resents, an approximately 83-percent-cleaner engine than 2010 engines with 50-percent fewer particulate matter. These are achieved by using a “clean sheet base en-
gine,” a culmination of all the components, a Cummins spokesperson said. The emissions warranty and useful life requirements
also increase, with automatic engine shutdown and stop- start that can further lower emissions and GHG. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the Trump administra-
tion, the California Air Resources Board ceased seeking the additional federal waivers it needed to fully imple- ment its Advanced Clean Fleet rule that about a dozen states were set to adopt. Many of those states are now not implementing it, which set out to reduce the number of diesel heavy-duty trucks that could be sold in Califor- nia and the other so-called CARB states. Diesel Emissions Reduction Act reauthorization was
also introduced in Congress last month. That program, which ran through fiscal year 2024, had been marked for review by the Trump administration. It has been respon- sible for replacing over 5,100 high-emissions school buses since 2010. ●
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