Texas agency gets $3.1M for alternative-fuel efforts

AUSTIN, Texas — The Railroad Commission of Texas has received a $3.1 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office to add 258 propane-powered school buses and 24 support vehicles to 19 public fleets.

The grant will also fund upgrades to 19 refueling sites for the fleets to accommodate advances in propane vehicle technology.

The agency said it anticipates that the clean-burning fuel consumed by the new vehicles will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,641 tons annually.

"Schoolchildren in Texas will breathe easier with propane school buses, and taxpayers will breathe easier, too, with the savings they’ll see from switching to propane," Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams said. "As an added benefit, propane is domestically produced, so the schools and local governments are helping improve our energy security, too.”

The public fleets partnering in the grant are:

• Capital Area Rural Transit ($487,060)
• Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District (ISD) ($40,000)
• Dallas County Schools ($1,135,072)
• Denton ISD ($80,000)
• Harlandale ISD ($29,136)
• Lindale ISD ($24,000)
• Lumberton ISD ($24,000)
• New Braunfels ISD ($56,000)
• Northside ISD ($428,968)
• Princeton ISD ($96,000)
• Richardson ISD ($12,000)
• San Antonio ISD ($424,000)
• Seguin ISD ($8,000)
• Southwest ISD ($89,916)
• Texas State University ($80,792)
• University of Texas at Austin ($45,136)
• Van Vleck ISD ($8,000)
• Whitesboro ISD ($8,000)
• Ysleta ISD ($16,000)

More than 1,750 propane school buses currently operate in the state.