Biden administration awarding $900M for green school buses

The Biden administration announced Thursday it will award nearly $900 million for clean energy school buses to hundreds of school districts across the country.

Through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2023 Clean School Bus Program rebate competition, the agency selected more than 500 school districts to receiving the funding to replace diesel fueled school buses.

The funding will also allow schools to purchase more than 3,400 new clean school buses, 92 percent of which will be electric. The initiative is focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting children’s health from pollution, the EPA’s release said.

The funding will go to school districts in 47 states and Washington, D.C., as well as several federally recognized tribes and U.S. territories, the EPA said.

Nearly half of the funding will go specifically to school districts in low-income, rural and tribal communities.

“With today’s latest round of funding, we are transforming the nation’s school bus fleet to better protect our most precious cargo—our kids—saving school districts money, improving air quality, and bolstering American manufacturing all at the same time,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

Regan will join Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson in Jackson, Miss., Thursday to officially announce the program.

“This initiative ensures that children have a cleaner, safer, and more efficient means of school transportation and contributes to protecting our environment,” Thompson said in a statement. “By making meaningful progress and offering valuable opportunities for our students, we are paving the way toward stronger student success.”

The clean school bus program was part of the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in Congress and signed by President Biden in 2021