SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) - The Lake Tahoe Unified School District has decided to buy four new diesel-fueled school buses despite public criticism that it should be purchasing only electric-powered ones.
The school board agreed Friday to buy one 24-passenger electric bus, a move that cost the district only $4,600 thanks to a grant from the California Energy Commission that covered the rest of the cost.
But the Tahoe Daily Tribune reports that with only one dissenting vote, the panel also approved the purchase of four diesel buses at a cost of $780,000 over 10 years.
District officials say many of their school buses need replacement, including 14 that have logged more than 200,000 miles (321,868 kilometers)
Climate activist Nick Exline, members of South Lake Tahoe’s Climate Action Club and other community members spent the days prior to the meeting gathering signatures in support of electric buses instead of diesel.
Exline said grant money is available through the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust for California for efforts to reduce emissions. Liberty Utilities also has grant money for electric vehicle infrastructure.
Exline said volunteers from the 100% Renewable Committee were willing to write the grant applications for the district for free.
“All we’re asking here tonight is to review the information we have,” Exline told the board.
Several parents and students also urged the board to move toward electric buses during the meeting that attracted a standing-room-only crowd.
“We have the chance to be a pioneer school district,” said Logan Chapman, co-founder of the school’s climate club.
Andrea Salazar, the district’s chief business and operations officer, said the diesel buses will replace so-called “trip buses” that take students to sporting events or field trips outside of the basin. Those buses take nearly 550 trips per year and will go as far as Elko, 342 miles (550 kilometers) away.
He said the district is concerned that electric buses don’t have the battery life to take long trips and the lack of infrastructure for charging in rural Nevada would strand students in remote places.
“In today’s world, it’s not feasible to use electric vehicles for trip buses,” said Salazar.
Board member Bonnie Turnbull made a motion to delay a vote on the purchases to gather more information on electric buses, but the motion died for lack of a second.
“The public isn’t as informed as the board is on this issue,” board member Barbara Bannar said.
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