VP Harris announces $1 billion in federal funds to provide schools with mostly electric buses

Close to 400 school districts across all 50 states including Washington, D.C, several tribes and U.S. territories, set to receive approximately $1 billion in grants to purchase about 2,500 “clean” school buses under a new federal program.

The Biden administration is issuing the grants as part of a wider effort to speed up the transition to zero-emission vehicles and to reduce air pollution close to schools and in local communities.

Vice President Kamala Harris along with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan announced on Wednesday during an event in Seattle that the grants would be distributed.

“We are witnessing around our country and around the world the effects of extreme climate,” she said. “What we’re announcing today is a step forward in our nation’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gases, to invest in our economy … to invest in building the skills of America’s workforce. All with the goal of not only saving our children, but for them, saving our planet.’”

The new, mostly electric school buses are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving money and taking care of children’s health.

White House adviser Mitch Landrieu hopes that many buses will be good to go by start of the next school year, with the remainder being delivered by the end of 2023. 

“These buses will be made in America — real jobs with real wages,” Landrieu said in an interview. “We are going to ramp up manufacturing in this country.”

Environmental and public health groups praised the announcement.

“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.”