Tucson electric school buses carbon dioxide
Tucson electric school buses carbon dioxide savings are projected at about 17,000 tons over the working lifetime of the 10 new buses, according to Tucson Unified School District, equal to taking around 270 gasoline passenger cars off the road for that same span. That lifetime framing checks out against numbers the federal government publishes on its own. The Environmental Protection Agency puts the average yearly output of 1 gasoline passenger car at 4.29 metric tons of carbon dioxide, so 270 of those cars produce about 1,158 metric tons a year, and 17,000 tons divided by that yearly rate points to close to 15 years, a plausible working life for a bus fleet, not 1 year of emissions from 10 buses. That check, run here against the district figure and the federal one rather than stated by either, is why this account treats the 17,000 tons as a lifetime total and not a yearly figure.
How the funding came together
Replacing 10 diesel school buses with 10 electric ones cost Tucson Unified School District 6,336,648 dollars in total, but the district paid only 1,203,648 dollars of that itself, the governing board budget record shows. A grant of 4 million dollars through the federal Clean School Bus Program and a rebate of 1.1 million dollars from Tucson Electric Power, the local electric utility, covered most of the rest, along with 1.2 million dollars in bond funds the district issued on its own. The governing board approved the purchase on a 4 to 1 vote.
These are the rounded figures Tucson Unified School District reported for the grant and the rebate. The 1.2 million dollars in bond funds is the rounded version of the 1,203,648 dollars the district paid toward the total project cost itself, not a separate payment.
Show the numbers
| Environmental Protection Agency grant | 4 |
| Tucson Electric Power rebate | 1.1 |
| Tucson Unified bond funds | 1.2 |
The grants and TEP as a partner and our tax incentives is what makes this program financially feasible for us.
Ken Bolle, Fleet manager, Tucson Unified School District. Source 5.
A federal program more requested than funded
The grant behind the Tucson buses came from the federal Clean School Bus Program, created under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and authorized for 5 billion dollars in total funding across fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2026. Its most recent competitive funding round, announced in April 2023 with at least 400 million dollars, drew more than 1.9 billion dollars in requests, nearly 5 times what the government first offered, before the government awarded a final 965 million dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reports. The Environmental Protection Agency now states on its own program page that it is reviewing and revamping the Clean School Bus Program under a 2026 executive order, so districts applying after Tucson may not find the same money waiting.
These are national totals for the 2023 round of the federal program, not a figure specific to Tucson. The sources describe the Tucson grant only as coming from the Clean School Bus Program in general, not from this specific round by name.
Show the numbers
| Announced | 400 |
| Requested | 1,900 |
| Awarded | 965 |
It reflects our commitment to sustainability, safety, and fiscal responsibility in creating a cleaner, healthier environment for our students and community.
Dr. Charlotte Carter, Bond program manager, Tucson Unified School District. Source 5.
Tucson Unified School District secured its grant, its rebate and its 10 buses before that federal review began, so its 17,000 ton carbon dioxide projection rests on money already in hand rather than on a future award still working through a program the Environmental Protection Agency itself now describes as under revision.