Funds offered to upgrade school buses

Oklahoma is offering about $4.7 million to school districts that can be used to convert, upgrade or replace diesel buses, Gov. Mary Fallin announced Wednesday.

The bulk of the dollars, about $4.1 million, will be provided from Oklahoma’s share of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s settlement with Volkswagen over its diesel emissions cheating scandal.

Officials said that money is intended to promote the use of alternative-fueled

buses that use electricity (total or hybrid), propane or natural gas to transport students to and from school and to special events.

Districts seeking the money would be required to replace Class 4 through Class 8 diesel buses that are 2009 or older models, as part of their requests. They also could upgrade those buses to run on alternative fuels and could apply for funds to pay for needed electrical charging infrastructure, where appropriate.

The remaining money being offered to districts is coming from Oklahoma’s Clean Diesel/DERA Grant Program, which has about $600,000 available to pay for diesel exhaust control

retrofits on diesel engines built between 1995 and 2006, and to pay for replacing Class 5 through Class 8 school buses built during the same time with new diesel or gasoline buses.

“I am pleased to support the rollout of the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust funds and DERA funding for school bus projects across Oklahoma,” Fallin said. “This is an exciting opportunity for school districts across Oklahoma to upgrade aging school buses, in addition to taking on the environmental responsibility of transporting students in cleaner-burning fuel buses.”