Larisa Manescu, larisa.manescu@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced $400 million in grants for the Clean School Bus Program, which offers funding for school districts to replace dirty diesel buses and transition to cleaner school bus fleets. The Clean School Bus program is a part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021. The program is funded for five years and will distribute over $5 billion to get cleaner school buses on roads.
Currently, 95 percent of the nation’s almost 500,000 school buses are diesel. Diesel exhaust is a known carcinogen and can lead to or worsen respiratory illnesses like asthma.
The Sierra Club is a founding member of the Alliance for Electric School Buses (AESB), a national network of advocates urging the Biden-Harris administration to prioritize school bus electrification so that every child in the US has a clean commute to school. The AESB is working to ensure that the 25 million children who take a school bus each day get there on an electric school bus -- starting with the communities most harmed by air pollution.
In response to today’s EPA announcement, Eric Willadsen, a Sierra Club campaign representative with the Clean Transportation for All campaign, released the following statement:
“The demand for electric school buses is at an all-time high, and for good reason: Electrifying our nation’s school buses will bring immense benefits to children’s health, the well-being of bus drivers, and our climate. Young people in our most vulnerable communities are exposed to dirty diesel exhaust every day in their commutes to school, and the funding going to school districts to reduce this dangerous exposure pollution is long overdue. The EPA’s Clean School Bus Program continues to be a model example of how electrifying our heavy-duty vehicles improves the quality of life for residents across the nation while cutting climate pollution from the transportation sector.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.