Skyrocketing diesel prices strain district budgets. State funding must prioritize zero-emission student transportation, argues a Bay Area school official.
Here in California, diesel prices are the highest of anywhere in the country. According to the EIA, the average price for a gallon of diesel is $7.05 in our state, up $2.28 from a year ago.
I’m the director of maintenance, operations and transportation for Pittsburg Unified School District. It’s my job to make sure that kids get to and from school safely, on time and in a cost-effective manner. When diesel prices soar, so do our operating costs. As a public school district, we need to watch every dime we spend to make sure we’re using taxpayer dollars appropriately.
Fortunately, a few years ago we began investing in clean, electric school buses to reduce our students’ exposure to diesel exhaust pollution. Now, our state leaders have an opportunity in this budget cycle to dedicate funding for more electric school buses across the state, and I strongly urge them to do so. At Pittsburg Unified, we made the decision to invest in electric school buses in order to prioritize students’ health.
Over the years, I had watched thousands of kids pile onto diesel buses, smoke belching from the tailpipes. Diesel fumes can lead to asthma and cancer in children — and asthma is one of the leading reasons kids miss school. Electric school buses also fit in well with our district’s sustainability goals, which push us to pursue innovative clean energy solutions.
But we also wanted to be fiscally responsible, and we knew that electric school buses cost less to operate and fuel than diesel-burning school buses – on average over $100,000 less than a diesel bus over the lifetime of the bus. So we worked with partners to secure funding from PG&E and the California Energy Commission to cover the cost of charging infrastructure for the buses, and secured funding for the buses themselves from both internal district funds as well as the Bay Area Air District and the Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project grant funding.
Now, with diesel prices skyrocketing, these savings are even more pronounced. In fact, analysis from the World Resources Institute shows that the national average cost to fuel a diesel school bus rose from around $7,600 per year in 2025 to about $11,900 in 2026. That’s a 57% increase. Electricity costs rose too in that time, but not nearly as much.
The analysis showed that the average nationwide cost to fuel an electric school bus rose from around $3,125 per year in 2025 to just over $4,000 in 2026. That’s half of the rate that diesel costs have gone up. That means it now costs about three times as much on average to fuel a diesel-burning school bus annually than it does to power an electric bus for a year.
And here in California, diesel prices are significantly higher than the national average. And while we still have diesel school buses in our fleet, our electric buses are providing clean, healthy rides at a fraction of the operational cost, especially because nearly 60% of our district’s electricity needs are met by our own solar and wind power generation.
Seeing these electric buses deliver real health, climate and cost benefits to our community, I want every student in California to have access to a clean ride to school. The state can help make that happen too, by investing in the Zero-Emission School Bus and Infrastructure incentive in this year’s budget.
ZESBI funding helps bring the clean rides and cost savings of electric school buses to more districts and more students – important for all kids and especially those communities that face the most exposure to air pollution. This helps our kids breathe easier, cuts our emissions and makes us all less reliant on fossil fuels. The last time the state made ZESBI funding available, there was an outpouring of interest from school districts, with over $200 million in waitlisted applications.
It’s no surprise that other school districts are so eager to make the switch. And with diesel prices now over $7 per gallon in our state, there’s never been a better time to invest in clean electric school buses. Matthew Belasco is director of maintenance, operations and transportation at Pittsburg Unified School District.
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