Bush administration proposes new funding for EPA Clean School Bus program
30 January 2004
President Bush’s 2005 budget proposal will include $60 million in additional funding to expand the Clean School Bus USA program, an EPA initiative designed to reduce emissions of air pollutants from school buses, announced EPA Administrator Leavitt during a visit to a Pittsburgh-area elementary school.
EPA launched the Clean School Bus program in April 2003, with the goal of upgrading the nation’s entire school bus fleet to low emission buses by 2010. The initial budget for the program was $5 million. A total of $65 million will be provided for the program in 2005. As a result of the increased budget, the program will be expanded from 17 districts in the financial year 2004 to nearly 220 school districts in 2005.
The expanded program will provide grants to governmental entities to replace pre-1991 school buses with new clean school buses offering state-of-the-art emission control and safety features and to retrofit post-1990 school buses with advanced emission controls, such as diesel oxidation catalysts or particulate filters.