Hesperia schools awarded $3.6 million in federal money for electric school buses

Hesperia Unified is among nearly 400 school districts nationwide that will receive roughly $1 billion in grants to purchase about 2,500 “clean” school buses under a new federal program.

The Biden administration is making the grants available as part of a wider effort to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles and reduce air pollution near schools and communities.

In Hesperia, the district will receive 12 buses valued at $3.4 million and $240,000 for charging station infrastructure, said George Landon, Hesperia Unified deputy superintendent for business services.

The district bus contracts with First Student, which Hesperia Unified coordinated with in applying for the grant, Landon said.

The district buses about 9,000 students on 100 buses every day, Landon said.

The 12 new electric buses accommodate around 70 students each, Landon said.

"Along with solar panels at our schools, this is another example of the district doing our part in helping fight climate change," Landon said.

Another benefit: The new electric buses will replace the oldest buses in  Hesperia Unified/First Student's current fleet, Landon said.

The lifespan of a district school bus is about 15 years, Landon said.

National perspective

The new electric school buses will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save money and better protect children’s health, the White House said.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan announced the grant awards Wednesday in Seattle.

As many as 25 million children ride familiar yellow school buses each school day and will have a “healthier future” with a cleaner fleet, Regan said. "This is just the beginning of our work to ... reduce climate pollution and ensure the clean, breathable air that all our children deserve,” he said.

Only 1% of the nation’s 480,000 school buses were electric last year, but the push to abandon traditional diesel buses has gained momentum in recent years. Money for the new purchases is available under the federal Clean School Bus Program, which includes $5 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law President Joe Biden signed last year.

The clean bus program “is accelerating our nation’s transition to electric and low-emission school buses while ensuring a brighter, healthier future for our children,” Regan said in a statement.

The EPA initially made $500 million available for clean buses in May but increased that to $965 million last month, responding to what officials called overwhelming demand for electric buses across the country. An additional $1 billion is set to be awarded in the budget year that began Oct. 1.

The EPA said it received about 2,000 applications requesting nearly $4 billion for more than 12,000 buses, mostly electric. A total of 389 applications worth $913 million were accepted to support the purchase of 2,463 buses, 95% of which will be electric, the EPA said. The remaining buses will run on compressed natural gas or propane.

Rural school districts benefit

School districts identified as priority areas serving low-income, rural or tribal students make up 99% of the projects that were selected, the White House said. More applications are under review, and the EPA plans to select more winners to reach a total of $965 million in the coming weeks.

Districts set to receive money range from Wrangell, Alaska, Anniston, Alabama, Teton County, Wyoming, and Wirt County, West Virginia. Besides Washington, major cities that won grants for clean school buses include New York, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Seattle.

Environmental and public health groups hailed the announcement after years of advocacy to replace diesel-powered buses with cleaner alternatives.

“It doesn’t make sense to send our kids to school on buses that create brain-harming, lung-harming, cancer-causing, climate-harming pollution,'' said Molly Rauch, public health policy director for Moms Clean Air Force, an environmental group. "Our kids, our bus drivers, and our communities deserve better.''

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: EPA awarding nearly $1 billion to schools for electric buses