On Wednesday, the Biden administration offered over $1 billion in grants to American school districts with the purpose of replacing outdated, gas-powered school buses with cleaner, primarily electric vehicles.
The money is the first instalment of $5 billion that will be distributed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over a five-year period through the clean school bus programme established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.
According to the White House, the prizes will help fund the purchase of 2,463 buses, 95% of which will be electric. School districts in all 50 states will get the almost 400 rebates.
The administration’s larger initiative to improve public school infrastructure and lessen emissions from outdated buses includes the EPA’s clean school bus programme. Additionally, it helps carry out U.S. President Joe Biden’s commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions and direct federal funding toward underserved areas.
According to a research by the nonprofit Public Interest Research Group, switching the whole country’s school bus fleet to electric vehicles would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 million tonnes annually. According to an EPA estimate, that equates to shutting down 1.5 coal plants for a year.
As a result of the very high demand from school districts, the EPA announced last month that it would nearly quadruple its $500 million projected clean bus awards for this year.
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