No Big Absurd Carbon Footprint For This New Bar Harbor School Bus

Bar Harbor always has the coolest stuff

As a town in Maine goes, Bar Harbor really is pretty cool. Sure, with Acadia National Park, killer restaurants, spectacular views, proximity to the ocean... Can you really find anything wrong with Bar Harbor? Sure, hahaha. If you hate crowds in hot weather, it may not be your spot. Hate the outdoors? Then you may wanna skip it.

But in almost every other way, our favorite little seaside town elevates itself whenever possible. For instance, they're a town that fights light pollution. In other words, they want you to be able to enjoy the night sky without being polluted in city lights. They also have a huge solar array on the property of their high school.

Along those lines ...

Now on top of all that, Bar Harbor has the distinction of having the state's very first all-electric school bus. According to NewsCenter, the idea was originally floated by one of their bus drivers, Doug Van Gorder. He explained how it all came about to NewsCenter:

About two years ago, someone from 'a climate to thrive' asked if we would consider getting an electric school bus, I didn't even know that was a thing. So I looked into it and yeah it looked good, it made sense, except for the cost. You can buy four standard buses for the price of this bus, and so I kind of let it go, I knew that wouldn't fly with the budget.

However, thanks to a grant from an emissions fraud settlement with Volkswagen, the money became available. Normally, a bus like this would cost $350,000, but the grant covered 80%. And, the electric bus will save about $5,000 a year in fuel costs, which pretty much rocks.

They'll host an official unveiling of the bus on October 12.