The EPA on Monday announced another round of funding for all-electric and low-emission school buses under its Clean School Bus Program.
Nearly $1 billion will go to 67 applicants, the EPA said in a press release. The agency has also set up an online dashboard showing where the new school buses will be going. The funds will help purchase over 2,700 school buses in 280 school districts across 37 states, serving over seven million students, the EPA said.
Lion C Electric School Bus
Not all of these buses will be electric; the program also covers propane and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. But it all helps offset diesel engines and their high levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. What’s it like to drive an electric school bus? Mostly, more of the same, but a lot cleaner and quieter than the diesel buses they’re meant to replace.
This is the second tranche of funding for what is planned as a five-year program adding up to $5 billion in funding. Created under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the program started with $965 million of funding awarded to 389 school districts in October 2022.
Thomas Built Buses Jouley electric school bus
The program has already awarded nearly $2 billion and funded approximately 5,000 electric and low-emission school buses nationwide, according to the EPA, but it still has a long way to go. At the program’s start, the agency said there were over 480,000 school buses in the U.S.
Before the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Volkswagen diesel settlement also funded a lot of electric school buses. California is planning to transition all of its buses to electric by 2040—a feat, given the service life of these vehicles.
