Reuters reports:

Soaring diesel prices since the onset of the Iran war are draining already tight U.S. school district budgets, making it more expensive to bus students and run generators in a shock officials say they will not be ​able to afford for long.

School districts from Yakima, Washington, to Waco, Texas, are tapping emergency funding reserves to keep buses running. In remote Alaska, officials are scrambling to secure enough ‌fuel to keep the lights on, according to Reuters interviews.

“It’s more than a straw on the camel’s back, it’s like a haystack,” said Yakima Superintendent Trevor Greene.

The stress reflects one of many knock-on impacts of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has disrupted the flow of around a fifth of the world’s oil supplies.

Since the war started in late February, fuel prices have posted one of their most rapid climbs on record. The spike has upended economies around the globe. It has caused enough pain ​in the U.S. to be a political liability for President Donald Trump ahead of November midterm elections when his Republican party is trying to maintain slim majorities in the U.S. Congress.

U.S. school bus ​operators are major buyers of diesel, consuming more than 800 million gallons of diesel annually, according to the American School Bus Council.

Since December, the price U.S. fleets ⁠of all types pay for diesel fuel has jumped 67% to $5.52 a gallon, an increase that would add about $1.8 billion to the annual cost of operating those school buses, according to a recent analysis by fleet ​management technology provider Samsara. [Continue reading…]