Proper school bus fuel and energy decisions rely on maintenance, charging and regulations costs and considerations, among others
Written By Kari Lydersen
W 20 School Transportation News • FEBRUARY 2021
ith a new presidential administration in place and no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts are facing many decisions and changes. Updating their fleets of school buses may be one of them. Able-bodied school districts are considering several key factors
when purchasing a new bus, namely maintenance needs and cost, new infrastructure requirements, and environmental regulations and benefits. These have largely been driven by the increased cost of diesel engines,
which have grown more complicated in order to reduce emissions to com- ply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. Diesel continues to account for the majority of new purchases each year, but gasoline has eaten into the margin because of fewer maintenance costs tied to diesel particulate filters and forced regens, for example. Still, diesel has cleaned up emissions by over 90 percent and closely rivals the “alternative” benefits of propane and CNG. (And biodiesel and drop-in renewable diesel are eligible for $1 per gallon credit from the IRS against an operator’s tax liability, com- pared to $0.50 for propane and CNG.) “Surprisingly, gasoline is the highest pollutant of [carbon dioxide]
emissions, with propane close behind,” commented Mark Childers, the powertrain and technology sales manager for Thomas Built Buses. “In many ways, diesel engines are as clean as if not cleaner than other alternatively fueled engines, based on the latest engine technology. Therefore, this isn’t a question of how diesel school bus engines will be affected [by regulations] but really how all school bus engines, other than electric, will be affected.”
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