It’s never been easy to stretch education budgets. But a handful of Missouri schools have found a way to re-direct dollars from transportation into classrooms. They’ve done this by adopting propane school buses. These cleaner buses benefit the districts’ bottom lines as well as provide students, teachers and staff with a healthier environment by eliminating toxic diesel emissions that impact lung health and are identified as carcinogenic.
Schools across Missouri, following a nationwide trend, are returning to propane buses to lower their transportation costs. Once the backbone of school fleets, propane-powered buses slowly gave way to diesel models over the last generation. But, as governments, health officials and parents demand cleaner alternatives, propane autogas has proven to be a reliable and cost-effective option among the alternative-fuel competitors.
More than 17,000 propane school buses are in operation today at more than 900 districts nationwide transporting about 1 million students. Those numbers are growing. For example, the transportation contractor serving Kansas City Public Schools will add about 150 propane school buses this fall. Other districts are taking advantage of state and private funding to replace aging diesel fleets with cleaner, lower-cost alternatives. The most common replacement to diesel buses has been propane.
What’s fueling the change are the twin benefits of lower operating costs and health benefits. The experience of one district in southwest Missouri offers a glimpse into the benefits.
CONVERTING FUEL DOLLARS TO SCHOOL DOLLARS
Neosho School District has operated a propane fleet since 2014. According to Transportation Director Michelle Embrey, the district has saved thousands of dollars each year because of the reduced fuel and maintenance costs of these buses. “Any savings from alternative fuel buses helps our transportation department serve as better stewards of the district’s money,” Embrey said.
The district runs about 185,000 miles with its propane buses. District records show that, compared with the average diesel costs from the previous four years, savings have totaled $29,077 annually for the 18 propane buses. For the 2017-2018 school year, Embrey estimates lower fuel costs, along with the alternative fuel tax credit, brought total savings to $34,000. That is about the amount of a new teacher’s salary in Missouri.
Embrey says that the district negotiated a contract with a locked-in rate of $1.39 per gallon of propane. By comparison, the district pays $2.01 per gallon for diesel, although it has been closer to $3 over the past few years. In addition, the district capitalizes on federal tax credits of 50 cents per gallon. For the fuel itself, the district entered into a multiple-year fueling contract with their propane provider, receiving a rebate of $2,000 per bus at the time of purchase. As part of the contract, the propane provider installed a fuel station at the district’s transportation facility. The station includes two 1,000-gallon tanks and a pump capable of fueling two buses at the same time. The school district supplied some of the labor required for installation.
The district reports that service time and costs for oil and filter changes for each propane bus were approximately 50 percent less than for diesel. The district has decreased its oil and paid less for filter packages. After finalizing one school year of cost data for its fleet of propane buses, the district found its air filter savings totaled $1,350, fuel filter savings were $540 and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) fuel savings came to $931. Plus, the district paid $630 less for each of its oil changes. “The mechanics especially like the location of the propane engine as they can easily work within the space. Plus, it takes them a lot less time to do each service,” Embrey said.
BENEFITS BEYOND FUEL COST
More saving showed up for the district in the winter. Due to the chemical properties of propane autogas, the propane buses warm up faster and have no cold start issues. Unlike diesel, the district’s propane buses can start up in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit, making the district’s electric bills significantly lower because the propane buses don’t rely on block heaters. They also don’t have to pay personnel to come in early to start diesel buses, or run additional higher-speed highway miles (with no students on board) to recharge the DEF system.
“The propane buses allow us to greatly reduce our idle time with the buses as well as reduce the amount of diesel emissions we had within our district,” Embrey said. The district’s mechanics also appreciate the lack of harmful fumes in the service garage.
More than 17,000 propane school buses are in operation today at more than 900 districts nationwide transporting about 1 million students.
When the district’s buses are parked nose to tail at student pick-up time, exhaust fumes can fill the air around and even inside buses. Unlike diesel buses, propane vehicles emit virtually no particulate matter and far less nitrogen oxides (NOx). Buses fueled by propane also emit fewer greenhouse gases and total hydrocarbon emissions when compared to diesel buses. In terms of environmental impact, the propane buses emit 571 fewer pounds of particulate matter and 13,600 fewer pounds of NOx annually compared to the diesel models they replaced.
“The district was looking at how we could do our part to help our local environment by going green,” Embrey said.
300 AND COUNTING
In addition to the Neosho and Kansas City districts, several other schools have adopted or are considering propane buses. Grain Valley, just east of Kansas City, and Fort Zumwalt, in suburban St. Louis, both operate propane fleets that replaced older diesel buses. According to the Missouri Propane Education & Research Council, there are nearly 300 propane buses across the state and more on the way.
Steve Ahrens, President of MOPERC, points to factors beyond the proven cost-savings of propane buses. “Once parents learn about the health impact of diesel emissions, they are demanding that their schools look for other options. It is a dirty fuel — as anyone who has pulled up behind a diesel bus or truck can attest.”
The federal government and health officials are putting a lot of pressure on diesel as a fuel that is making it more expensive and less useful in some situations. “If there is a war on coal for power generation, then there is a parallel war on diesel in the transportation sector,” Ahrens said.
Propane, compressed natural gas and electricity are the standard options to diesel, and Ahrens notes that propane’s benefits in cost, portability and refueling infrastructure are factors in schools deciding to move away from diesel.
“One of the benefits is the cost certainty of fuel,” he said. “Some suppliers can lock in the fuel cost for 18 months or longer, which helps school budgets. The lower cost of refueling is also a big advantage as both CNG and electric vehicles require extremely expensive investments. Propane fueling is often provided at no cost as part of the fuel agreement.”
MOPERC has pledged $1 million to help school districts transition from diesel buses to propane. “A district can apply for up to 10 rebates of $2,000 each. We write the check to the district and they can use it however they see fit,” Ahrens said. For MOPERC’s current fiscal year, the organization has helped fund 19 Missouri school buses.
Funding assistance is also available through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which administers proceeds from fines paid by Volkswagen for incorrect diesel emissions testing. The VW funding in Missouri can provide up to $22,000 for a bus that replaces an existing diesel bus with a cleaner model.
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