Grants to help upgrade aging diesel school buses

School bus fleets across 27 states have been awarded over $7.7 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to replace or retrofit 401 aging diesel school buses.

EPA’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) will distribute rebates to the 88 bus fleets. The bus improvements will lessen pollutants associated with health problems like asthma and lung damage.

“Thanks to DERA funding, we are protecting our children from breathing diesel emissions as they travel to school,” Christopher Grundler, director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, said in a news release.

“Nearly 17,000 of our country's schools are located within steps of a heavily traveled road, potentially exposing more than six million children to traffic-related pollution at a time when their developing lungs are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of air pollution,” Grundler said.

Rebates will vary by bus size and range from $15,000 and $25,000 for replaced buses with engine model years of 2006 and older. Modifying school buses with engine model years between 1994 to 2006 with a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst plus Closed Crankcase Ventilation system (DOC plus CCV) to reduce toxic emissions is another option.

The DERA program has paid for more 700 clean diesel projects throughout the U.S. since 2008.