Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. | Michigan.gov
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. | Michigan.gov
Roughly $54 million in funding will be utilized by 25 Michigan school districts and will add electric vehicles to their bus fleets.
According to a news release issued by the state government, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) made the announcement concerning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Clean School Bus Rebate winners last month.
The renovation of regular school buses to electric vehicles is expected to save the money that will be channeled back into classrooms.
“These grants will help Michigan buy and use clean school buses to take kids to school safely and keep the air in and around our school's cleaner, all while powering our economic growth,” said Whitmer in the release. “The EPA’s Clean Bus Program will help us upgrade our school bus fleets and build on work being done across the mobility industry to switch to electric. In Michigan, we will continue taking action to meet the goals of the MI Healthy Climate Plan I unveiled earlier this year that will lower costs, create jobs, and protect public health while putting us on a clean energy path to carbon neutrality.
She added that the state would continue to pursue clean energy initiatives in line with the safety of Michigan communities.
Molly Rauch, EPA administrator and public health policy director for the nonprofit Moms Clean Air Force, said the move towards a clean bus program helps shape a better future for our children, giving them fresh air “all our children deserve.”
Regular, diesel-powered school buses “spew carcinogenic and climate-warming pollution into the air our kids breathe,” said Rauch. “It simply doesn’t make sense to send our kids to school on buses that create brain-harming, lung-harming, cancer-causing, climate-harming pollution. Our kids, our bus drivers, and our communities deserve better,” she said.
Moreover, the measure adds to the state’s Fuel Transformation Program, which doled out $30 million to aid schools purchase 300 buses that run on clean fuel and 17 electric school buses.
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