EPA directs practically $1B for electrical college buses

The EPA on Wednesday introduced $965 million in grants for electrical college buses, the primary of a five-year, $5 billion program for zero-emission college buses.

The grants will go to 389 college districts spanning all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several other Native American tribes and United States territories, the EPA mentioned in a press launch, including that the grants will assist these college districts buy over 2,400 electrical buses.

The EPA laid out particulars for the $5 billion program in Might, and in September it successfully doubled the first-year funding, which had initially been set at round $500 million. College districts receiving this funding have been chosen through lottery. The subsequent spherical of funding scheduled to launch within the coming months and can embody “an formidable grant competitors,” the EPA mentioned.

Funding for this system comes from the mammoth Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation handed in late 2021. That legislation additionally put aside $7.5 billion towards a nationwide EV charging community, focusing on 500,000 chargers.

Earlier than the Infrastructure Regulation was handed, Volkswagen’s diesel settlement additionally funded lots of electrical college buses for states. Michigan, for instance, used a part of its $64.8 million share of the settlement to assist fund the acquisition of 17 electrical college buses for seven college districts as substitute for current diesel buses.

Electrical college buses have fewer upkeep wants, do not contribute to noise air pollution, and curb diesel emissions that may contribute to bronchial asthma and different well being points. After some seat time within the electrical industrial chassis underpinning Lion Electrical’s college buses, we additionally discovered that they’re surprisingly simple to drive.