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Dixie County schools await federally funded electric bus fleet

The Dixie County School District will introduce a new fleet of electric school buses next month. The funding for the fleet comes from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. (Paul Hof-Mahoney/WUFT News)
The Dixie County School District will introduce a new fleet of electric school buses next month. The funding for the fleet comes from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. (Paul Hof-Mahoney/WUFT News)

The Dixie County School District will be rolling out a new fleet of electric school buses next month funded by a rebate received through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program.

The county received a $9,085,000 rebate in 2022 that will go toward the purchase of 23 brand new electric school buses. The current fleet has 37 diesel buses, but some of them are not operational.

The switch to electric buses is growing in popularity across both the state and the nation. Dixie is one of 12 Florida counties to have received federal funding towards clean school buses since 2022.

“The electric school bus movement has been one of the most positive in terms of transportation electrification advancements,” said Celia Kosinski, a policy manager with the Electrification Coalition, a nonprofit group that promotes policies to accelerate transportation electrification across the country. “They’re well received across the urban and rural sectors of Florida… We are seeing it become less of a politicized issue and more of seeing the benefits financially, and the benefits to public health and climate concerns as well.”

There are currently 11 electric buses in the Dixie County bus garage, and Paul Bennett, the district’s director of transportation and facilities, said there are more coming in every week. When all 23 arrive, they will completely replace diesel buses on daily routes. The district will retain 14 of the older buses, but they will only be used for special circumstances like field trips.

The district is in the process of installing chargers for its new fleet of electric school buses. PJ Hope, the coordinator of transportation for Dixie County Schools, says the buses will have a comfortable margin to complete their routes on one charge. (Paul Hof-Mahoney/WUFT News)
The district is in the process of installing chargers for its new fleet of electric school buses. PJ Hope, the coordinator of transportation for Dixie County Schools, says the buses will have a comfortable margin to complete their routes on one charge. (Paul Hof-Mahoney/WUFT News)

Electric buses have a few key benefits over their diesel counterparts. According to a May study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, each diesel bus produces 181 more metric tons of carbon dioxide than an electric bus does over the course of a year. Considering the impact of that difference multiplied by the hundreds of thousands of diesel buses across the country, the study said a larger shift towards electric buses would have a profound effect on the environment.

The impact on public health is a factor that many overlook when considering the electrification of school buses. The same Harvard study shows that 2.43 deaths per 100 million miles driven were attributed to the average diesel fleet in 2017. That number drops to 0.10 when replaced by electric buses. When looking at new asthma cases, the number drops from 4.08 to 0.17.

“As we’ve seen, there is an increased risk of certain health impacts, such as respiratory diseases, asthma and so forth,” said Kosinski, “Not just for the students that are riding those [diesel] buses every day, but in those communities.”

Price is a common concern among parents and residents when it comes to moving away from diesel buses. The rebate covers the hefty cost of purchasing the buses, and district employees say the operational costs will be greatly reduced.

District mechanic Wesley Suggs estimates that a diesel bus costs about $40 per route, while an electric bus should only cost about $12. Over the course of a month, that comes out to thousands of dollars in savings across all 23 electric buses.

“Electric school buses have lower operation costs, lower maintenance, longer life spans,” said Kosinski. “These benefits can really impact these communities financially.”

Bennett said the district currently has its sights set on the buses being in use by mid-October, and what he described as a “grand opening” in November.

Paul is a reporter for WUFT News who can be reached by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.