La Grande School District will not be moving forward with electric school bus funds
By Garrett Christensen on Wednesday, June 5th, 2024 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – At the end of May 2024, the EPA announced that La Grande School District had been selected to receive $2,020,000 in rebate funds to purchase ten new electric school buses as part of a statewide effort to fund zero-emission buses in schools. Elkhorn Media Group recently spoke with La Grande Superintendent George Mendoza who confirmed that the district will not be moving forward with the rebate funding. As explained by Mendoza:
“We did work with Mid-Co to apply for a Grant. I always only wanted two or three, maybe even three or four electric buses. I do feel electric-powered buses are helpful in terms of our future, but they were to be fully funded buses. What we received was basically fifty percent off on buses. An electric bus costs roughly $400,000, we were given $202,000 to apply towards a bus. The charging infrastructure is about $40,000 and we were given no money for it. Any of the chargers for the buses, plus the other remaining costs of the buses, was not there in that package. So, for us, it’s not fiscally responsible, and it’s not something we can do to pay the remaining $240,000 to have an electric bus. So, we’re not going to accept the grant.”
Mendoza went on to explain that, even if the district did receive the 2-4 buses it was interested in, they would not fully replace the current diesel fleet. The roughly 150–200-mile radius range of the buses during regular service means that the vehicles would be restricted to town running while the district judged their performance, with the diesel buses covering longer routes and field trips.
Though there is still some interest in eventually testing a smaller number of electric buses in La Grande, the high cost and lack of coverage for the necessary infrastructure in the current grant offered by the EPA, combined with the ten-bus stipulation, means the La Grande school district will not be moving forward with electric buses at this time. As best summarized by Mendoza:
“I will be recommending to our board when we discuss it in the next board meeting that we not accept the two million twenty thousand dollars grant as I don’t think it’s responsible or prudent for us to make this type of decision at this time. Expect us to not have electric buses in the near future.”
