What are you…..yellow?

OK. Time for a little pop quiz: What color is a school bus?

Used to be that if you answered anything but yellow you got an F… and maybe a note to your parents suggesting a visit to the local ophthalmologist. Well, not any more.

IC Bus says green is a perfectly acceptable answer  and may even be the preferred one, given the state of peak oil and the warming planet. In fact, the Illinois school bus manufacturer thought green was so deserving of a gold star that it’s sponsoring a nationwide contest for K-12 students featuring one of its $200,000, energy-efficient, plug-in hybrid school buses as the grand prize.

Teaching its own version of Earth Science, the bus company says hybrid technology can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 percent and improve fuel economy even more, and to interest school districts across the country in making the switch it came up with a contest called America’s Greenest School.

The cost of entry? An essay by students about the value of living and traveling “green.” Length: 500 words. (Efficiency, it seems, applies to more than just energy.) A panel of judges selected by IC Bus will determine the winners. Check out the website at http://www.sweepstakeslovers.com/cars-vehicles/americas-greenest-school/ if you’re interested, but don’t get upset when you see the bus.

It’s still yellow.

© Miller Communications Inc.