The U.S. Congress has allocated $7.5 million in funding for the 2005 fiscal year to the Clean School Bus USA Program for cost-shared grants to school districts to reduce pollution from their diesel bus fleets.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency intends to issue a national solicitation to allocate those funds soon.

Interested districts should begin to gather information now on the make and age of engines and number of students riding the buses, and contact potential fuel and equipment vendors to learn more about what would be appropriate for the fleet. Only school districts will be able to apply for this federal funding.

In Pennsylvania, the majority of school buses are actually operated by private contractors. These companies can work with their school district on retrofit strategies.

For example, West Chester School District in Chester County has received EPA funds for retrofitting buses actually owned and operated by Krapf Bus.

EPA will post its application on the Grants/Funding section of the Clean School Bus USA website and for a list of projects already funded.

If you need assistance with technology or other general issues in connection with your application, please feel free to contact Chris Trostle (dtrostle@state.pa.us or 717-787-9495 or Arleen Shulman (ashulman@state.pa.us ) at the Department of Environmental Protection.

DEP also maintains a Diesel Emissions website with lots of useful information.

3/18/2005