(UnitedVoice.com) – Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021. The legislation provided billions of dollars for energy-efficient school buses. President Joe Biden’s administration recently announced another round of funding.
On January 8, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it had selected 67 applicants to receive approximately $1 billion. The money is coming from the agency’s Clean School Bus Program Grants Competition, which lawmakers established through the infrastructure law.
Districts across several states were awarded money to purchase fuel-efficient buses. The latest round of funding will pay for more than 2,700 clean buses in 280 school districts across 37 states. The buses will reportedly service more than 7 million students.
Nevada received $7.7 million in federal grants to purchase more buses. Officials are going to use the money to purchase 25 electric school buses across the state. The administration is also providing more than $12 million to a transportation company that will buy six buses for Utah school districts and 49 for nine districts in Colorado. West Virginia is getting over $18 million to purchase the vehicles for several districts in that state.
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he was “pleased” by the EPA’s investments in the states. He said the buses won’t just be awarded to districts, they will also be built in West Virginia as well. The senator said the bipartisan law will continue to “deliver critical investments for the Mountain State,” and pledged to do more.
In the EPA announcement, Vice President Kamala Harris said that the vast majority of the buses that take kids to school run on diesel, which exposes “students, teachers, and bus drivers to toxic air pollution.” She said the Clean Bus Program is part of the administration’s “work to tackle the climate crisis” and also “strengthens [the] economy by investing in American manufacturing and America’s workforce.”
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said the program will help “secure a healthier future where all [of America’s] children can breathe cleaner air.”
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