Eastern Carver County School District, based in Chaska, Minn., has partnered with Student Transportation Inc. to deploy propane autogas-powered school transportation vehicles in the district.

The company's Student Transportation of America (STA) subsidiary recently invested $3 million to acquire liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) buses, and STA and the school district plan on sharing the fuel costs as a part of the public-private partnership.

"With the uncertainty of market diesel prices, it is more cost-efficient to operate an LPG or CNG vehicle than a diesel engine vehicle," says Mike Straus, regional vice president of STA. "We have additional LPG vehicles scheduled to be deployed for the upcoming school year."

STA, which has a service contract with the district, coordinated the project with the suppliers of the autogas fueling infrastructure and the fuel itself.