Five Georgia school districts have been awarded federal grants to buy electric school buses.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will allocate $29.4 million in grant funding to the school districts in Brooks, Clayton, DeKalb, Douglas, and Jeff Davis counties through the agency’s Clean School Bus Rebate Program.

“Electric school buses produce zero tailpipe emissions, which means students and drivers are protected from the dangerous air pollution emitted by diesel or propane-burning buses,” said Dory Larsen, manager of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy’s Electric Transportation Program.

“This is vital for communities in Georgia, which are on the front lines of rising heat, sea levels, and catastrophic hurricanes. Reducing carbon pollution from our transportation sector is a double benefit for our environment and public health.”

In addition to the grants for electric school buses, school districts in five other Georgia counties – Atkinson, Baldwin, Hall, Madison, and Oglethorpe – will receive EPA grants to buy propane buses. While still dependent on the burning of fossil fuels, propane buses will help reduce air pollution in those communities compared to their current diesel buses.

The electric school buses also will also mean long-term savings for the grant recipients because the lifetime cost of operating them is significantly less than with diesel buses. 

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