Thousands of diesel-powered school buses drive down Michigan roads each morning. Soon, that number will dwindle just a little, thanks to a $125 million grant from the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).
Districts across the state will receive 10 propane and 87 electric buses, which will replace older diesel-powered buses in 23 school districts.
The program is a partnership between the MDE, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). It’s received support from environmental advocacy groups like It’s Electric! and Michigan Association of Pupil Transportation (MAPT).
A third round investment of the Clean Bus Energy Grant, totaling $35.9 million, paid for the 100 additional buses.
The Environmental Protection Agency provided states with $5 billion over five years to create the Clean School Bus Program. Michigan’s program was “created after that to kind of help fill the gaps that we felt the federal program was missing,” Kindra Weid, the Coalition Coordinator of It’s Electric, said.
Public schools could apply for the grant. A primary goal of increasing the number of cleaner-powered buses was to reduce diesel emissions, which are a detriment to air quality. EGLE found which areas of the state were most polluted through mapping tool MI EJScreen, Troy Hansbarger, MDE's Manager of Office of Health Safety, said.
“Our goal was to really target those areas so that we can remove a lot of those diesel buses and replace those with cleaner emission vehicles.”
Asthma is a leading cause of absenteeism, according to the state health department. Each year, as a result of asthma, about 1 in 8 Michigan students miss more than six days of school. Diesel exhaust is a common trigger of asthma.
“And so, that's like a big driver for why we want cleaner buses,” Weid said. “Some kids throughout rural Michigan are on the bus for a very long time, and that means that their exposure to diesel exhaust is extensive on the drive in and the drive home.”
Katrina Morris, the executive director of MAPT, is from West Shore Educational Service District in Northwest Michigan. She transports about 130 students across distances the size of Delaware. She hopes the cleaner-powered buses will yield quieter rides, which provide a better environment for students susceptible to sound issues.
“We carry a lot of severely, multiply impaired children that have severe needs, medical needs,” Morris said. “And so this will help them to be able to have that safer ride, which is what we are all here for.”
Already, though, the program has faced challenges at the federal level. Districts relying on federal funding were “left in the dark,” Hansbarger said.
They didn't know when those funds were to be released, so they didn't know how much they had available to them. So, they didn't know how much they needed from Michigan to complete their projects.
Other districts had chosen a bus company, like Lion Electric, that stopped servicing the U.S.
Not all the cleaner-powered buses have been purchased or entered into service yet. The grant will provide a final $44 million round of investment. Applications are due Dec. 18.
