Riding the bus back to school for students won't mean much for the 2023-2024 school year. But, how those school buses operate will be a game-changer for many school districts.

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South Dakota is seeing a shift from gas and diesel-powered vehicles to electric alternative transportation.

The movement began in October 2022 with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Clean School Bus Program which announced nearly $1 billion in awards to help almost 400 school districts purchase more than 2,400 buses. The program pays school districts up to $375,000 to replace a diesel bus with an electric one.

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The Electric School Bus Initiative published a report stating that 95% of these buses will go to school districts in all 50 states

Albeit a small amount, EVs now make up about 1% of the nation’s school bus fleet, but that figure is rising fast thanks in large part to $5 billion in federal funding.

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I'm sure you'll agree the shift to EV is an improvement to our environment. In a report by Canary Media, replacing the U.S. fleet of roughly half a million school buses could cut carbon emissions by around 8 million metric tons per year.

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More than 5,600 electric school buses have been ordered, delivered, put in operation or funded through government awards as of December 2022.

EV SCHOOL BUSES IN SOUTH DAKOTA

Several South Dakota Districts have received grants for EV school buses including Sioux Valley, Hanson, Garretson, DeSmet, Alexandria, Viborg, and Lower Brule. Some, have approval for just one bus, two, and up to 3 buses.

In total, the Biden-Harris Administration awarded $3,600,000 to these school districts.

THEY COST HOW MUCH

An electric school bus costs $350,000 to $450,000 — three to four times a traditional diesel bus.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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The 6 Types of South Dakota Drivers You Deal With Every Winter

Every year it snows in Sioux Falls. We may live in denial during the spring and summer, but it happens.

When the snow falls on the Falls, life in the city does not stop. We all still have to go to work, school, and the liquor store...um I mean go get snacks.

When you tackle the snowy routes around town you tend to run across six types of drivers in the snow.