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Durango School District 9-R
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will add a new electric-powered school bus
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to its fleet this fall, and it’s free.
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You’re watching the Local News Network,
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brought to you by The
Overlook at Edgemont Highlands
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and Serious Texas Bar-B-Q.
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I’m Wendy Graham Settle.
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Durango School District 9-R
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is one of only eight school
districts in the state
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to receive a $329,000 grant
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to purchase and install a
fully electric school bus
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and related charging facilities.
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The Regional Air Quality
Council awarded the grant
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as part of its ALT Fuels Colorado program
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to improve air quality by
replacing pre-2009 vehicles
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with electric and renewable
natural gas buses.
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The La Plata Electric
Association applied for the grant
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with the district’s approval.
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In addition to the Air
Quality Council grant,
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LPEA will contribute
an additional $120,000
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to provide electric
charging infrastructure
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and cover bus costs.
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I think it’s really exciting
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’cause this is just a great opportunity
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with La Plata Electric
and the school district
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to partner together to do this.
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We saw an opportunity to get
a bus for free basically,
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and let’s try forward, and we got it.
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La Plata Electric’s Dominic May,
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who works as the cooperative’s
energy resource architect,
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says the grant is the
start of a long-term effort
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to help LPEA users reduce
their carbon footprint
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and energy costs in the region.
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Yeah, that’s going to
be a big, big savings.
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Their current buses get
about seven miles per gallon.
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The electricity that we’re going
to be charging the bus with
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is going to be on LPEA’s really
aggressive time-of-use rate.
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So it’s basically, we’re
going to control that charger
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and make sure that we only fuel up the bus
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during those perfect times
in the middle of the day
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after it’s done its route,
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and then in the evening times
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after it’s also finished it’s later route.
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And in effect, it’s going
to let us charge that bus
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at 6.20 cents per kilowatt
hour, which is very, very cheap.
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In the end that’s going to be right,
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it’s going to get both cleaner
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and potentially cheaper as time goes on,
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but right now, that’s roughly 1/4
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the cost of the diesel fuel.
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And the other big thing
on that is maintenance.
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There’s no transmission,
there’s no engine,
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there’s no internal combustion engine.
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The total moving parts in an
electric vehicle can get down.
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It’s usually under 50,
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compared to many, many
hundreds of moving parts
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in internal combustion engine vehicles,
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so the maintenance is way, way less.
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Those will be the big cost savings to 9-R,
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and then just in addition to the fact
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that they needed new buses
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and they’re getting a
brand new bus for no money,
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that they would have
otherwise had to purchase
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for about $150,000 for a diesel
had they gone that route.
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The district has 37 large school buses
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that travel an average
of 150 miles per day
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and use about 200 gallons of
diesel or gas fuel a week.
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The district’s fuel budget
alone is $140,000 a year.
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Blythe said the electric
bus will be able to travel
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two routes each day on one charge.
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Blythe ordered of the bus in February
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and it’s expected to arrive
in about eight months,
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just in time for the fall 2021 semester.
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The electric bus purchase
is the first step
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toward fulfilling a long-term
district transportation goal,
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to replace all diesel
and gas-powered buses
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with vehicles that run
on electricity, propane,
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or compressed natural gas.
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It’s also part of a district-wide goal
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to incorporate more
sustainability practices
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in its operations.
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Looking longterm, the
district has already started
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looking at ways of cost savings
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with LED lighting and low-flow toilets,
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so moving towards leaving
less of a footprint behind
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is a goal of the district.
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To learn more about the
district’s transportation goals,
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visit duranngoschools.org.
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Thanks for watching this edition
of the Local News Network.
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Be sure to stay up to date
on our latest news stories
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through Twitter, Instagram
or your favorite podcast app.
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I’m Wendy Graham Settle.