Thanks to the Biden Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, school districts across the country are getting access to a huge amount of funds to purchase greatly improved, much more efficient school buses. In a release, the EPA announced that nearly $1 billion will be awarded to school districts across the country. Over 280 school districts that serve 7 million students in 37 states will have access to $875,429,000 to purchase more than 2,700 clean energy school buses.
The funds came after the EPA went through the process of selecting districts and agencies that had applied to the agency’s Clean School Bus Program Grants Competition, which was made possible by the Biden Administration’s $425.3-billion Investing in America initiative. With this new funding, the EPA has given nearly $2 billion for the purchase of 5,000 clean-energy school buses across the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris called the move historic, saying in a statement:
Every school day, 25 million children ride our nation’s largest form of mass transit: the school bus. The vast majority of those buses run on diesel, exposing students, teachers, and bus drivers to toxic air pollution. Today, we are announcing nearly $1 billion to fund clean school buses across the nation. As part of our work to tackle the climate crisis, the historic funding we are announcing today is an investment in our children, their health, and their education. It also strengthens our economy by investing in American manufacturing and America’s workforce.
The move to purchase these clean-energy school buses is a big one, especially for air quality. Diesel engines are well known polluters, and studies show their emissions disproportionately harm low-income and minority communities. Even in environmentally friendly California, which had many school districts in the state pivot to natural gas–powered school buses, it was found that natural gas wasn’t as clean as once thought.
While some districts missed out on applying and the eventual funding awards, the EPA says additional rounds of funding for clean energy buses will be made available at a later time.