The Beneficial Electrification League (BEL), a Minnesota-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing understanding on the benefits of electrification through education, announced a new initiative to accelerate the deployment of electric school buses (ESBs) in electric cooperative service territories throughout the country.

BEL launches this coalition effort in advance of federal funds targeted to electric school buses in the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed by Congress in 2021.

In the nation’s 13,185 unified school districts, rural electric co-ops serve more than 50% of the territory in 5,881 of those districts. Of these, 3,177 districts have 15% or more of the student population below the poverty line.

The effort brings together cooperative organizations representing more than 300 local utilities more than 20 states with the aim of facilitating coordination between utilities and school districts on electric school bus programs.

The aim of this program is straightforward: no school district or utility should miss out on that opportunity simply because they lack access to information or resources to participate in this valuable federal program.

—Keith Dennis, president of the Beneficial Electrification League

Cooperatives participating in the electric school bus initiative include:

Generation and Transmission Cooperatives

• Dairyland Power Cooperative (representing 24 electric cooperatives)
• Golden Spread Electric Cooperative (representing 16 electric cooperatives)
• Great River Energy (representing 28 electric cooperatives)
• Hoosier Energy (representing 18 electric cooperatives)
• Northwest Iowa Power Corporation (representing 7 electric cooperatives)
• Oglethorpe Power Corporation (representing 38 electric cooperatives)
• Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (representing 11 electric cooperatives)
• Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc. (representing 42 electric cooperatives)
• Western Farmers (representing 21 electric cooperatives and an air force base)

Statewide Organizations

• Colorado Rural Electric Association (representing 22 electric cooperatives)
• Minnesota Rural Electric Association (representing 50 electric cooperatives)
• North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives (representing 26 electric cooperatives)
• Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association (representing 25 electric cooperatives)

Distribution Cooperatives

• Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (representing co-op consumer-members in Virginia)
• Anza Electric Cooperative, Inc. (representing California co-op consumer-members)
• Beltrami Electric Cooperative (representing Minnesota co-op consumer-members)
• Dakota Electric Association (representing Minnesota co-op consumer-members)
• La Plata Electric Association (representing Colorado co-op consumer-members)
• New Hampshire Electric Cooperative (representing New Hampshire co-op consumer-members)
• Roanoke Electric Cooperative (representing North Carolina co-op consumer-members)
• Sioux Valley Energy (representing South Dakota co-op consumer-members)
• Trico Electric Cooperative, Inc. (representing Arizona co-op consumer-members)
• Winneshiek Energy District (an energy district in Iowa)
• Yampa Valley Electric Association (representing Colorado co-op consumer-members)