ROGUE VALLEY, Ore. – Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced nearly $4 million is coming to the Rogue Valley Transportation District.
This funding will go toward replacing six RVTD buses with new hybrid electric options.
The new buses will use a renewable diesel that RVTD says will greatly reduce its carbon footprint.
RVTD says the decision to choose hybrid over electric came down to its experience during the Almeda Fire.
“We’ve experienced some major disasters in our community,” said Paige West at RVTD. “We’ve tried to learn from those lessons and one of those lessons is brown outs.”
West says having the hybrid electric options will allow buses to continue to operate even if the electric grid was to go out. It was this reasoning that pushed the hybrid version above the fully electric option when applying for the funds.
West says the buses will probably not be running until 2025 due to delays in manufacturing.
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