RICHMOND, Va. — Legislation was introduced to the Virginia House of Delegates that would create a grant to replace diesel school buses with electric buses by 2030.
House Bill 1140 sets up a new block grant program that would allow school districts to seek funding to help replace their current diesel school buses with electric ones, as well as expenses for infrastructure support.
In September 2019, Governor Ralph Northam Tuesday announced that Virginia will dedicate $20 million to fund a new initiative aimed at accelerating the deployment of electric school buses across the Commonwealth. He said replacing 75 buses with all-electric school buses would result in a lifetime savings of 670,000 pounds nitrogen oxide, about 41,000 pounds of particulate matter population, and 36 million pounds of greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions.
This is equivalent to removing 3,500 cars from the road or saving 1.6 million gallons of diesel.
“Transitioning from diesel to zero-emission buses will have a measurable positive effect on our children’s health and their future in the face of climate change,” said Delegate Keam, the Democratic lawmaker representing Fairfax County that introduced the legislation. “I want to thank Mothers Out Front for working with me on this sensible solution that protects our kids’ health while addressing the climate crisis.”
The bill helps establish the Clean School Bus Grant Program to award grants from the fund on a competitive basis to school boards for the complete replacement of existing diesel school buses with electric school buses by 2030. It also highlights the implementation of recharging infrastructure or other infrastructure needed to charge or maintain such electric school buses, and what the workforce development and training to support the maintenance, charging, and operation of such electric school buses would look like.
The bill will also develop education outreach to promote the program.
View the full bill below: