This is Part 2 in a series about the rollout of electric school buses across the county. Read Part 1, about a school district in Michigan, here.
“When we used diesel buses, the garages would fill with exhaust fumes,” says Allen “Woody” Woodwick, a Transportation Supervisor at Havre Public Schools in Montana. In his 14 years of driving school buses in frigid weather with up to -40°F wind chills, he says that diesel buses would struggle to start and need to idle in the garage to warm up enough to run.
“There was always a cloud of exhaust about eyebrow level,” he recalls. Diesel exhaust exposure can lead to serious health conditions, which could be easily avoided by switching to electric school buses. Unfortunately, that wasn’t part of the plan for the rural district.
But then Woody learned of a grant that covered 80% of the cost of electric school buses through the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). So he applied, and the rural district was awarded two buses—the first electric school buses in the state. They were purchased in late 2021 and finally deployed in January 2023.
Tell Congress: Hold the Line on Progress to Cut Climate Pollution
Long distances are the largest mountains to climb for Montana EV adoption
Despite the known health benefits of the new buses, the community was wary, especially about range. “In rural Montana, distance—not cold weather—is the biggest barrier to EV adoption,” says Michelle Uberuaga, former Moms’ organizer for the state of Montana.
Woody agrees, laughing, “A bunch of people said we couldn’t do that in Montana, and sure we can. I like to prove people wrong like that occasionally.” The Havre district traverses the northernmost part of the state, near the Canadian border. It’s the largest city in the county, yet it has a population of only around 9,200.
Across Montana, electric buses can absolutely service most school routes, except for some that are over 100 miles each trip for the most spread-out districts. Neal Ullman, an expert on energy resources and alternative fuels for the DEQ, says that his office works to make the grant program sustainable by offering support. “Instead of just throwing a bunch of money at them and wishing them the best of luck, we also put together a school bus Technical Assistance Project,” he says. The program helps new electric vehicle adopters, not just electric school buses but also things like street sweepers too, by helping plan routes, making safety plans, and troubleshooting charging logistics.
Electric batteries are safe and sustainable many times over
Charging is top of mind when getting used to electric buses. For a while, the new buses in Havre would just take kids to and from school to ensure the buses stay charged during their routes.
But once the buses became more familiar, bus drivers started to take them farther afield. Recently, Woody says, the Havre district is getting braver in pushing “a little closer to the envelope” of where the buses go. One electric bus was put to the test when a driver ran his morning route to take students to school, then straight away took a group of kids on a field trip 40 miles round trip through mountainous terrain. When the bus arrived back at the depot, it still had 10 to 16% battery remaining. Woody is pleased that during these longer drives “electric buses are cleaner, and drivers aren’t exposed to fumes at all. Plus, the buses are incredibly quiet, so drivers can hear what’s going on around them.”
It has only been about two years since Havre’s electric buses arrived, but Woody is already a convert. He’ll share the sustainability case for electric batteries to anyone willing to listen like a salesman. There’s an air-conditioning system for the battery to keep it cool so overheating isn’t an issue! When batteries eventually wear out, they won’t fill the landfills—like diesel or gas engines would! A worn bus battery can be turned into a battery that is used inside a car, later transforming into an exterior storage battery that can charge a vehicle sitting in a garage! The battery’s metals can be recycled entirely to make a new battery!
Also, electric school buses do not need oil changes or transmission flushes. And critically for Montana, they perform well in extreme cold spells, unlike diesel buses with fuels that gel over in those conditions. “It takes nearly the same amount of power to keep a diesel warm enough to start as it does to charge a bus,” Woody says. The Montana Electric School Bus Technical Assistance Program Report shows that even during winter months when there are some emissions from electricity generation and auxiliary diesel heaters used in some ESBs, compared to diesel buses, ESBs significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants in the air.
Montana continues to step up on sustainability
Woody and the Havre School District happily pass on these lessons they have learned with other districts across the state. Currently, 17 electric school buses are in operation across six school districts in Montana—another 64 buses have been awarded through EPA’s Clean School Bus Program and Diesel Emission Reduction Act grants.
Kids across Montana are also getting involved with electric school bus adoption. Michelle from Moms Clean Air Force has worked with local students to successfully make inroads toward more sustainable transportation statewide. She says some children have even persuaded their school boards to apply for the grants. “That’s the win.”
Parents can help further the swelling of the sustainability movement in Montana too. “We are building power in our state by building networks of parents advocating in their communities, understanding and spreading messages about what’s better for our children, health, and pocketbooks.”
Woody’s message to other districts considering applying for electric school buses is a little more practical: “For districts considering electric buses, grants make it a great way to experiment. Even if they don’t work out, you’ll still have a valuable trade-in in five years. And the environmental benefits are significant—no oil changes, no diesel fumes—and the batteries are fully recyclable. Overall, they’ve been a great fit for us.”
The next round of EPA funding closes January 9, 2025. Learn more about how your school can benefit from the Clean School Bus Program.
Tell Congress: Hold the Line on Progress to Cut Climate Pollution