USA doubles funding for electric school buses
The US government is almost doubling its budget for the promotion of “clean” school buses because of the high demand reflected in applications submitted between May and August this year. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is now making a total of 965 million dollars (about 995 million euros) available in 2022 instead of the previously announced 500 million.
The electric school bus programme is part of President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure package for decarbonising transport over the next five years. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is nearly doubling the previously allocated funding due to the “overwhelming demand from school districts across the country, including in low-income communities, Tribal nations, and territories.”
About 2,000 applications have been received so far, requesting almost 4 billion US dollars for more than 12,000 electric school buses in the USA. More than 90 per cent of these were electric buses, while 9 per cent of applications were for propane buses and 1 per cent were for compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. In 2023, another billion dollars is to be allocated as part of the total US$5 billion programme.
The EPA has said that the applications received this year will now be reviewed expeditiously and expects a number of grants to be announced in October. The process from then on is that the selected school districts are able to proceed with purchasing new buses and eligible infrastructure and after submitting the proper forms, they can receive rebate funds.
Following the processing of the current applications, the EPA has said it anticipates running both a grant competition and another rebate program in 2023. Here, the agency says it, “encourages school districts not selected in the first round of rebates – and those that did not apply this funding cycle – to participate in future rounds.”
“Today’s announcement reflects what we know to be true—school districts across our country are eager to replace their heavy-polluting school buses with cleaner alternatives,” said Senator Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “I’m especially pleased to see that there is high demand for electric buses among low-income, tribal, and other disadvantaged communities. These are the very communities that stand to gain the most from our historic clean school bus investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Given the response to the availability of these dollars, it’s clear that more funding is needed.”
