
Cleaner school buses are on the way to Pennsylvania
Study shows that Pennsylvania ranks nationally for Electric School Buses

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that the Penn Hills School District outside of Pittsburgh is receiving $2.8 million in grant funding to help finance the purchase of 10 new electric school buses. This award is the latest addition in federal funding for Pennsylvania school districts to transition from polluting, diesel-powered buses to cleaner, healthier electric school buses (ESBs).
A report released this summer by the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center highlighted how Pennsylvania ranks 5th in the nation for committed ESBs. With this most recent grant, there are now 479 clean electric school buses purchased or operating in school districts across the state.
Our study also ranked Pennsylvania 9th nationally for overall investments into electric bus fleets. With these investments, over 6,700 Pennsylvania students will ride to and from school every day without exposure to harmful tailpipe emissions from diesel vehicles.

Unfortunately, most traditional school buses still burn harmful diesel fuel. Children and drivers then breathe in the pollutants from the bus’s diesel exhaust, which is linked to asthma and other health issues, as well as cognitive development problems. Incredibly, studies have shown that diesel exhaust levels are actually higher within the school bus than outside of it. Air samples taken within diesel school buses have been shown to have levels of diesel pollutants eight times higher than a regular sample of air taken outside of the bus.
Diesel-powered school buses also contribute to global warming. They rely on dirty, polluting fossil fuels to run, and release significant levels of climate pollutants because of this. In Pennsylvania and the greater mid-atlantic region, diesel school buses release levels of greenhouse gases twice as high as electric school buses.
Conversely, electric school buses have zero tailpipe emissions and therefore offer a cleaner, healthier, and more environmental alternative to traditional diesel buses. With nearly a half million school buses transporting kids back and forth across the United States, transitioning to electric school buses is critical for protecting the health of our kids, local communities, and our planet.

The PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center is excited that the Penn Hills school district is taking advantage of the federal Clean Heavy Duty Vehicles grant program. These new clean school buses will prevent hundreds of students from exposure to harmful diesel emissions, and reduce the amount of climate pollutants released by the district.
We hope that all Pennsylvania school districts will aggressively pursue electric vehicle funding to accelerate their conversion to a 100% electric school bus fleet. The PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center is also working with state and local officials, as well as utility companies, to increase funding and reduce barriers to cleaner electric school buses.
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