GARDEN GROVE : 3 Energy-Efficient School Buses Due

Three energy-efficient school buses will roar into the Garden Grove Unified School District’s fleet next spring as part of a state program to encourage manufacturers to build buses that produce less smog.

“It’s a regular school bus with an alternative, energy-efficient engine,� said Ronald Walter, associate superintendent for business services at the school district. “It burns cleaner.�

Garden Grove was the only school district in Orange County selected by the California Energy Commission to participate in the program, said Bob Aldrich, a commission spokesman.

Twelve of the 63 school districts that applied for the statewide program will get the new buses.

School district officials in Garden Grove hope by May to replace three of their older, run-down buses in the 87-vehicle fleet, Walter said.

The Energy Commission calls its plan to give away 153 clean-burning buses this year the Safe School Bus Clean Fuel Efficiency Demonstration Program.

“This sends a signal to school bus manufacturers that we want safe buses, as well as ones that make environmental sense,� Aldrich said.

“This puts manufacturers on notice as to what kinds of buses California is going to want in the future.�

Participating school districts will subject their state-of-the-art buses to rigorous testing.

On-board computers will monitor pollution emissions measured by sensors near the tailpipe, Aldrich said.

The Energy Commission hopes to collect the data by having the schools plug each on-board computer into a telephone device to transmit test results directly to Sacramento, Aldrich said.

The buses will burn regular diesel fuel, the type used by other buses. The difference is that sophisticated engines in the new buses will burn more of the diesel, getting better mileage and emitting less pollution, Aldrich said.

“The diesel buses should not be producing the billowing clouds of black smoke that you associate with diesel buses,� Aldrich said.

Each bus costs about $120,000, Aldrich said.

The state’s program is funded by $60 million from the Petroleum Violation Escrow Account, a multimillion-dollar rebate to the public from oil companies that were found in a class-action lawsuit to be overcharging consumers during the gas crunch in the 1970s, Aldrich said.