Everyday, many Annandale students make their commute to and from school on their bus.

In the age of climate change, riding the bus may be one of the most environmentally friendly ways to commute. Buses, like any other vehicle, still have room to become more environmentally friendly.

‘Mothers Out Fairfax County’, a local advocacy group, has been pushing for more environmentally friendly buses with their Clean Buses for Kids campaign.

On August 20th, the group pushed for a change from diesel school buses to electric school buses.

The result of their advocacy were a shock even to the group board members.

Dominion Energy, accompanied by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, announced its support for the deployment of 50 electric school buses on August 29th. The 50 buses plan to be in action before the end of 2020.

Dominion’s goal to change the entire state wide school bus fleet to electric is planned to be active by 2030.

“I think the plan is great, changing buses to electric is great benefit for th environement and for students,” senior Mitchell Eggert said.

The move would be a dramatic change; Virginia as a whole as 17,000 buses, 99% of which run on diesel fuel. In addition, FCPS is responsible for the second largest school bus fleet in the U.S.

The benefits outweigh the costs as well, the move to electric would prevent 54,000 pounds of yearly greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere and reduces maintenance and fuel costs by more than 60 percent a year, according to Dominion.

“I hope Dominion follows through with their plan,” Eggert said.