DENVER — Adams County School District 14 will roll out 14 new electric school buses by 2025, adding to the 144 electric buses that already are ferrying school children in Colorado or are on-order for districts across the state.

The Adams 14 buses will phase out more than half of the 25 diesel buses used by the district. The school district also will build solar-powered canopies to house the new buses, and that solar power will be used to charge them, said Josh Cochran, the district’s operations director.

The solar power also will help electrify Alsup Elementary School, which is next to the district’s bus depot in Commerce City.

The new electric buses, which will be acquired through an Environmental Protection Agency grant, were announced Thursday during a news conference sponsored by the Colorado Public Interest Research Group and Mountain Mamas, an environmental advocacy group, to promote electric school buses as a way to improve Colorado’s air quality.

Diesel buses release harmful fumes that can trigger asthma attacks and can cause cognitive problems.

“How tragic to send our kids to school on buses that impact their ability to learn,” said Sara Kuntzler, Colorado program manager for Mountain Mamas.

Danny Katz, executive director for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, said a recent report found Colorado ranks 23rd in the United States for electric school bus usage. Twenty six of the state’s 178 school districts already have electric buses in their fleets or have ordered them, he said.

Adams 14’s new buses will bring the total of electric buses in use or on order to 158.

Colorado is spending millions to promote electric vehicles as a partial solution to the state’s air quality woes. Metro Denver and the northern Front Range are listed as being in severe violation of federal air quality standards.

Earlier this summer the American Lung Association listed the Denver-Aurora area as the sixth most polluted city in the United States. Fort Collins was ranked 16th most polluted and Colorado Springs was listed as 20th most polluted.

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