Page 17 - jan-feb 2023

What Could Have Been

wardees for the Clean School Bus Program 29,000 propane school buses would save districts almost
were announced a few weeks ago. Nearly $1 $131 million in fuel costs, annually and $1.6 billion over
billion in rebates will go their entire lifecycle.
Atoward replacing diesel ve- The bottom line? EV isn’t the
hicles with cleaner alternatives. I am a big only solution to clean school
supporter of EV but I believe we missed bus transportation. For instance,
the mark. ROUSH CleanTech’s propane
Why? Nearly all of the $1 billion autogas engines have the lowest
will go toward 2,350 electric school bus- nitrogen oxide levels of any school
es. As a stark contrast, there will only be bus engine on the market, including
109 low-emission school buses powered those powered by the electric grid.
by propane and compressed natural gas. The Clean School Bus Program
With a sum as large as $1 billion, will provide another $4 billion to re-
the program could have made a much bigger dent in replac- place existing diesel buses with cleaner alternatives over the
ing older, high-emitting buses. If the goal is to get as many next four years. As we progress through the balance of the
outdated diesel buses off the roads as possible, did we actu- Clean School Bus Program, perhaps there is a better way to
ally do that with this round of funding? The answer is clearly distribute those dollars in an effort to drive in both emissions
no. reductions AND significant cost savings.
In fact, with the $1 billion funding program spec- For more information about why propane auto-
ifications, we could have put as many as 29,000 propane gas makes the most sense for U.S schools, visit ROUSH-
school buses at bus stops across the country, which would cleantech.com, or reach out to us to start a conversation.
cover almost all of the school buses replaced on an annual Here’s to creating a greener future together.■
basis. Propane buses cost a third as much as electric buses,
and they don’t require extensive and expensive infrastructure
related to charging stations, electrical service upgrades and
system overhauls.
Plus, propane buses have a range of 400 miles on a
single fueling, which is hundreds of miles more than electric Todd Mouw is executive vice president of
buses. And, propane buses make much more sense for rural sales and marketing of ROUSH CleanTech,
an industry leader of advanced clean vehicle
and semi-rural areas where the electrical grid cannot support technology. Mouw has more than two decades
the infrastructure needed to power and sustain electric school of experience in the automotive and high-tech
buses. industries. As former president of the NTEA
Green Truck Association, Mouw helped set
The Propane Education & Research Council esti- standards in the green trucking industry. To
mates that replacing 29,000 diesel buses with propane buses learn more, visit ROUSHcleantech.com.
would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 7,846 metric
tons per year and carbon dioxide emissions by a whopping
155,472 metric tons per year.
Replacing 2,350 diesel buses with electric buses
will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by just 665 metric
tons per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by only
36,870 metric tons per year, considering the average emis-
sions output of the U.S. electrical grid. In addition, those
17 Alabama Propane Gas Association | January / February 2023