Some Washington schools could get free electric buses

Depending on the outcome of a pending grant application, local school districts that are part of a transportation cooperative may receive 14 electric school buses at no cost.

Woodland School District — which oversees the cooperative — was awarded a $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program in May that would cover $200,000 toward the cost of each of the 14 buses. Now, it is waiting to hear back about a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology that would cover the remaining $200,000.

Woodland’s transportation is run through a cooperative with Kalama, Ridgefield and La Center school districts called KWRL. Woodland acts as the district of record for the cooperative, meaning it officially employs all the staff and charges the other districts a fee. The districts split costs between them based on how much each district uses the buses.

The Woodland School Board also has to decide whether to accept the EPA grant or wait for other options to purchase electric buses, which will be required by the state once the cost is equal to or below the cost of diesel buses. The acceptance deadline is Nov. 29.

The transportation cooperative has 120 buses in total, and the new electric fleet could be used for any of KWRL’s districts.

Woodland expects to find out whether it will receive the Department of Ecology grant this month, KWRL Transportation Director Shannon Barnett said. It also expects to hear about another EPA grant, through the Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicle Grant Program, around the same time.

In March, the state Legislature passed House Bill 1368, which requires school districts to transition to using zero-emission buses. There is no deadline for the change, but the bill states that once the total cost of ownership of zero-emission buses is equal to or less than that of diesel buses, districts can receive reimbursement only for zero-emission buses and new buses must be zero-emission.

Zero-emission buses are powered by electricity and do not put out air pollutants or greenhouse gasses. According to the EPA, diesel exhaust contributes to global warming and can cause respiratory illness or worsen existing heart and lung diseases, especially in children.