EPA awards 14 zero-emission school buses to New Bedford, Massachusetts

Officials in Massachusetts joined officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to celebrate the awarding of 14 zero-emission school buses to the city of New Bedford on Thursday.

Funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure law, the awards were part of nearly $30 million in rebates awarded to school districts in Massachusetts for 76 zero-emission buses. Under the program, New Bedford received $5.5 million for the 14 buses and the charging infrastructure to go with them.

The BIL provided $5 billion in funding to transform school bus fleets across the country. The first round of funding available as grants follows another $1 billion awarded through a rebate competition last year that funded electric and low-emission school buses.

“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is delivering significant funding to Massachusetts school districts for clean electric school buses, with a particular focus on reducing air pollution in disadvantaged communities overburdened by dirty air,” said EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Cash. “These zero-emission vehicles will help provide cleaner and healthier air for school children, reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, and save money for our communities. Investing in America means investing in communities so that a parent waiting at the bus stop with their kid is not worried what their child is breathing.”

The grants, part of the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program, will fund electric, propane, and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses that will produce either zero or low tailpipe emissions compared to older diesel buses.

“New Bedford has been at the forefront of investments in renewable energy for more than a decade — from our nation-leading municipal solar programs, to our status as the staging port for America’s first industrial-scale offshore wind project, to the electric vehicles already in use by our municipal fleets. We are proud today to continue that record of early adoption of these important technologies with the planned acquisition of electric school buses and are grateful for the federal support from the EPA and our congressional delegation, that has made this possible,” said City of New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell.