By Jaden Gerard Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC News) — Students stand outside their school everyday waiting for the bus to arrive. The bus they get is most likely either diesel or gasoline fueled, each which give off an odor, an odor that local middle school student Logan doesn’t like.
“But with the smell of it I don’t really like it,” he said.
The Clean School Bus Program offers rebate awards to schools that apply. Schools purchase electric busses and then get partly reimbursed by the program. As announced yesterday by the Biden-Harris Administration, the amount of money being awarded is now up to $1 billion. This money is coming out of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan.
In a news release from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said, “President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is accelerating our nation’s transition to electric and low-emission school busses while ensuring a brighter, healthier future for our children.”
The applicants receiving awards are decided by a lottery system and the EPA has spent $913 million on 2,463 busses so far according to the agency. The EPA says 95% of these are electric.
The program can’t be executed without overcoming some obstacles. The North Syracuse Central School District is interested in making the transition to electric school busses, but the district’s department of transportation is still doing their research. They want to make sure that the electric busses have enough mileage and that infrastructure such as chargers are up to the necessary standards.
The first round of applications closed in August, but more of the money available for the program will be used as additional applications rounds occur.
