As politicians and pundits continue to deny the existence of climate change, one New York school district is not only teaching students about climate science but taking it to the streets. CBS 2 reports that the Plainview-Old Bethpage school district’s yellow buses are going green with a new eco-friendly bus that doesn’t use fuel of any kind but is powered solely by rechargeable batteries. What’s more, they cost the same as the traditional bus but “are quieter, cleaner, and cheaper to maintain”:
The new eco-friendly buses have electric motors, and don’t use fuel of any kind, meaning they don’t produce emissions. Instead they are powered by a network of rechargeable batteries.
The buses cost $100,000, about the same as traditional buses, but they are quieter, cleaner, and cheaper to maintain.
“It doesn’t have a transmission. It has very few moving parts, and the vehicle is charged up overnight when the electric grid is being used the least so it’s off-peak,” said Bart Marksohn of WE Transport Inc.
The district is starting out with a one-bust test run over the next 60 days. If approved, the first electric buses will be on the roads in September 2012. The decision to go green was simple for district officials. As one put it, “In implementing this we’re only echoing what the students are learning — to care about their environment. So we’re just building upon what’s being taught in the classroom on a daily basis.”