Mapleton Elementary School is receiving almost $400,000 in funding for a zero-emission Electric School Bus.
David Piantanida is a Region 8 media officer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He says Mapleton School District 7 is one of three North Dakota school districts selected to receive EPA funds through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
"It'll look and feel like a normal school bus, but it will be fully electric. It will go about 100 miles per charge, but it will still look the same. It will be yellow, it will hold around 60 students, but gone will be the diesel fumes, the noise that comes from those big school buses that you often hear in your neighborhood. It's not so much the noise, it's really about the pollution factor. "
Piantanida says cold North Dakota winters won’t be an issue for the school bus.
"There is a huge potential for savings in money because of not having to refuel the bus, and the fact is that they won't have to be spending money on fuel or gasoline, in most cases it's diesel, so there will be a savings there. There's also saving in less sick days for kids who have issues with asthma and other issues with polluted air."
The new bus will arrive at Mapleton Elementary School sometime in 2023.